


I'm Back at the Beginning (And I Don't Know Where to Start)

by Midnight_Clover



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Angst, Blood, Blood and Injury, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Homesickness, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots, M/M, No Smut, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Not Beta Read, Pidge is enby, Protective Lance (Voltron), Secrets, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Universe Travel, klance, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:13:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26426935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midnight_Clover/pseuds/Midnight_Clover
Summary: After the events of Season 8 Lance gets sent back in time when Allura Sacrifices the Lions instead. He's determined to use his foresight to change things for the better. How could he possibly fix everything if so many things are slightly different?OrLance gets sent back in time to another universe but he doesn't know it's not just time travel, he's determined to fix things.
Relationships: Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Lance & Blue Lion (Voltron), Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Lance & Red Lion (Voltron)
Comments: 55
Kudos: 195
Collections: Finished111





	1. Chapter 1

Lance’s eyes blink open. He’s not in his bed. Has he been captured? He sits up quickly and looks around the room. He can hardly recognize this place in the dark. He finds a light to flick on. It’s his room at the Garrison.

Hunk groans from the other side of the room. He props himself up slightly and checks the clock by his bed. “It’s six am, Lance, why the fuck are you awake?”

“Don’t worry about it, buddy, go back to sleep,” Lance says, flicking the light back off.

_What’s going on?_

In the darkness again, he feels around under his bed until he hits it. He pulls it out, dimming the bright screen when he flips the lid of his laptop open. He tries to remember how it worked. Where could he find the date?

Three little clicks later with his calendar open and he sees it. This is the day for simulator training.

This is the day they left earth.

He closes the laptop, sliding it back under the bed. He lays there, thinking. Trying to figure out what happened. He ends up falling back asleep, and waking up at seven thirty to Hunk’s alarm clock.

He shoots up in bed, entirely unused to the sound. Hunk groggily sits up, turning off his alarm clock and beginning his motions for the day. Lance joins him, trying to remember what he did last time he lived this day. Off all the days, this is not one he has any urge to change. If something about this day changes in the wrong way then that could send the whole of the future spiraling in the wrong direction. He’d be dooming the entire galaxy.

Now in uniform, Lance follows Hunk to the cafeteria, not remembering where it is himself. As he eats, he finds himself searching for the feeling that he hadn’t tried to find in a while. **_Blue_**.

“Lance?” Hunk asks.

“What?” Lance asks, looking at his friend.

“You’re being quiet,” he says. “Did you do something last night? Is this about turning on the lights at six am?”

Lance puts on a smile for his worried friend. “Don’t worry Hunk, I didn’t do anything.”

“That does not easy my concerns, did you mess with the simulator?” Hunk asks.

“I didn’t. I swear,” Lance says.

“Okay,” Hunk says, though his suspicions are obviously not swayed.

The calendar marking for simulation day had a little description under it “no other classes :)” which means Lance doesn’t have to figure out what other classes he has, or even more difficult, where they are.

He goes with Hunk to the simulator, meeting up with Pidge. The first thing he notices is how much shorter she is. He hadn’t noticed that she’d grown at all during their time in space. But it’s obvious that Pidge is at least four inches shorter than when Lance had seen her just a few hours before.

They board into the simulator ship and strap themselves in. It’s been so long since Lance had flown anything that wasn’t sentient. He can barely tell where to start. He doesn’t have any time to try and figure it out, before the simulation begins.

Instinct takes over, he starts flying.

“Lance can you please keep this thing straight?” Hunk asks.

The flight is shaky, Lance tries to even it out, it works, marginally. The computer starts beeping. This ship is nothing like flying the lions.

“Knock it off, Lance. Please!” Hunk yells.

“This one’s your job, Hunk. The stabilizer’s out.”

It’s weird to be flying a ship that can’t magically heal itself with it’s trans-dimensional comment energy too.

“You can puke later, Hunk,” Lance says, anxiety rising with every second that the alarm beeps. Alarms usually mean that there’s a battle going on, soon they will again.

“I lost contact, the shaking is interfering with out sensors,” Pidge says.

“Sorry,” Hunk says, unbuckling himself as he goes to make changes.

A location pops up in front of them. “We’ve got a marker,” Lance says. “Approaching now.”

“I don’t think that’s advisable with our current mechanical issues,” Pidge says.

“Don’t worry, Pidge, we can do this.”

Pidge unbuckles and Lance’s anxiety spikes again. She stands up and reaches for the radio, but falls and hits her head.

All Lance can think to say is “Stay in your seat!”

As the shaking continues Hunk throws up. This is all going to shit.

Oh.

Right, he’s supposed to crash.

“Attention, lunar vessel, this is Galaxy Garrison Rescue Craft One Victor Six Three Tango. Against crew recommendations.”

“Doesn’t matter, we’re going in,” Lance says. He sees an overhang in their way. That’s what he crashed into last time, he’s sure of it.

“Look out for that overhang!” Pidge shouts.

“No worries!” Lance says, a smile on his face. He braces for impact.

“We lost a wing!” Hunk says a second after they clip through the overhang.

“Oh boy,” Lance says, bracing for the imminent impact.

It doesn’t come. There’s just a slight jostle and the computer says “Simulation failed.”

Lance takes a deep breath. He did perfect.

The three exit the simulator, lining up in front of Iverson. Christ, Iverson.

“Well lets see if we can use this complete failure as a lesson to the rest of you students.”

Last time Lance spoke with Iverson, Lance was higher ranking. Now Iverson is his angry teacher again.

“Can anyone point out the mistakes these three so-called cadets made in the simulator?”

A student raises his hand. “The engineer puked in the main gearbox.”

“Yes,” Iverson says. “As everyone knows, vomit is not an approved lubricant for engine systems. What else?” Hunk flinches.

“The coms spec removed their safety harness,” a girl in the front of the group says.

They? Lance glances at Pidge. Thats… definitely different. This is already so goddamn weird, this might as well happen.

Another girl in the front raises her hand, chiming in. “The pilot crashed!”

“Correct. And worst of all, the whole jump, they’re arguing with each other. Heck, if you’re going to be this bad individually, you’d better at least be able to work as a team!

“The Galaxy Garrison exists to turn young cadets like you into the next generation of elite astroexplorers, but these kinds of mental mistakes are exactly what cost the lives of the the men on the Kerberos Mission.”

Lance feels disconnected. It’s so weird to remember that this all started with a mission to Kerberos.

“That’s not true, sir!” Pidge contradicts. Lance braces for impact again.

“What did you say?” Iverson yells.

Lance slaps a hand on Pidge’s mouth before realizing he has nothing to say. “Sorry sir. I think Pidge’s heat got knocked.” No pronouns, great, perfect. You can’t mess up pronouns if you don’t use them. “But point taken.”

Iverson takes a step forward. “I hope I don’t need to remind you that the only reason you’re here is that the best pilot in your class had a discipline issue and flunked out. _Don’t_ follow in his footsteps.”

Christ. He’d forgotten about that. Keith wanted to find Shiro so bad he got expelled for fighting anyone that got in his way. Shiro’s flying through space, right now, and is going to crash land, tonight. He’s got to get this right.

That night, Hunk anxiously peers around a corner. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Relax. We’ve gotta, it’ll be good for us,” Lance says. If Hunk get gets any more anxious he’s going to have to come up with another lie to get him to do this.

They creep along the hallway until they see Pidge leaving her dorm room.

“Where’s she going?” Lance asks without thinking. Oh fuck.

“They, Lance,” Hunk says. “You _know_ Pidge is non-binary.”

Lance swallows. Pidge is non-binary. _Alright then_.

Lance follows Pidge, Hunk trailing along behind him. “Yeah, where are they going?”

They follow Pidge up to the roof, just like Lance remembers.

“Whatcha doing up here?” Lance asks, taping on Pidge’s shoulder.

Pidge cries out in shock. “Oh, it’s just you guys. I’m just… looking at the stars.”

“Sure, like that’s believable,” Lance says.

“This doesn’t look like Garrison tech,” Hunk says, going to touch one of the small satellites.

“I built it,” Pidge says proudly. “Stop it!” They say, swatting away Hunk’s hand from the satellite.

“You built all this?”

“With this thing, I can scan all the way to the edge of the solar system.”

“All the way to Kerberos?” Lance asks. He knows the answer is yes, that’s why Pidge built it. That’s why Pidge is here.

Lance listens avidly, soaking in every detail of what Pidge says about Voltron and the world changing. World changing is right. Universe changing is more accurate.

“Attention, students,” comes Iverson’s voice over the loud speaker. “This is not a drill. We are on lockdown! Security Situation Zulu Niner. Repeat: all students are to remain in barracks until further notice.”

“What’s going on?” Hunk asks, looking around. Lance looks at the skies, finding Shiro’s ship. “Is that a meteor?” Hunk points at the flaming chunk of metal hurdling through the atmosphere.

Lance tenses. It’s go time.

Pidge holds up binoculars. “It’s a ship! And it’s not one of ours!”

“Wait, there really are aliens out there?” Hunk yells.

The ship crashes in the close distance.

“We’ve got to see that ship!” Pidge says, packing up their stuff.

Lance follows Pidge, jogging behind them. “Hunk come on!” he says when he notices Hunk not following.

When they finally get to a rock that they’ve got a view from, Lance watches through the binoculars. Trying to figure out anything more than what he remembers.

“They set up a camera in there and I grabbed it’s feed,” Pidge says as Hunk tries to go back to their barracks for the second time. “Look!”

Lance watches as the medics talk to Shiro, tensing as they do.

They’ve got to get in there. Pidge and Hunk discuss it. Lance waits for Keith’s bomb.

“Is that the aliens!” Hunk yells as Keith’s bombs explode in the distance. “Are they here? They got here so quick!”

“No, those explosions were a distraction,” Pidge says, “for him.”

“Well lets go!” Lance yells, already running down the steep slope. He hopes the other two are following behind him. His legs don’t have the muscle he worked so hard to build.

“Keith!” Lance shouts as he slides into the building, completely unfazed by the unconscious body. “We gotta go!” He grabs Shiro’s other arm and starts moving towards the exit.

“Who are you?” Keith asks. There was no scar on Keith’s face from his fight with Shiro. Keith had lost his height on Lance as well. Because none of it ever happened, none of it ever will if Lance has any say in it.

“I’m Lance! We were in the same class together!”

“I don’t remember, you,” Keith says, as they rush towards his hover bike.

“I’m a pilot,” Lance prompts.

“Oh, yeah. Cargo pilot?” Keith asks.

“Not anymore, fighter class now,” Lance says. This is entirely surreal.

Lance helps Keith load Shiro onto his bike.

“Mind if we catch a ride with you?” Hunk asks, climbing on.

“Is this thing going to be big enough for all of us?” Pidge asks.

“No,” Keith growls as he turns on the engine and starts driving away.

Lance goes into autopilot, hanging on to the bike and trying to make sure nobody goes anywhere. Keith out maneuvers all the Garrison off roaders repeatedly until they’re finally, finally, back at his shed.

Keith lets them all take a nap as Shiro’s drugs wear off.

_“Voltron isn’t needed anymore, the rest of the work is up too the people,” Allura says._

_And as Allura and Honerva join hands. Everything around them starts to glow brighter. Everything gets brighter and brighter._

_Then it’s all white and warm. The light sucks into itself. Pulling Lance with it, though he can see everyone else left behind. Everything ever constructed by the comets are sucked in with him. The lions, Lotor’s ship, everything._

_He watches as he is sucked away from his friends and the universe goes dark. Black and nothing. Until he explodes._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited: January 4th, 2021


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance forms Voltron for the second first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly wasn't expecting any response to the first chapter so that little bit of response I got was amazing!
> 
> Edited: January 4th, 2021

He wakes up in a cold sweat.

He’s in Keith’s shed. Pidge and Hunk are asleep on the couch. He wonders if every time he wakes up he’s going to assume he’s been captured by the Galra.

He sits up and looks outside. Shiro and Keith are out their, watching the sunrise.

Lance smiles. Time for day two of being a time traveler.

It’s odd to think about.

Allura sacrificing the Voltron Lion sent him back in time. Is he missing there? Is there another copy of himself with them? Is he just gone? Would they even know how to start getting him back? If they do get him back would that mean breaking the time line?

Does he want them to bring him back?

No. They definitely should not try and bring him back. He’s got to help this go right. He’s got to protect his friends.

As he waits for Pidge and Hunk to wake up and for Keith and Shiro to come inside, he calls out to her again.

**_Blue. Are you there?_ **

**_Yes._ **

Lance smiles as the familiar warmth of his currently mostly asleep friend rushes over him like a strong wave.

Keith and Shiro come back into the shed, waking the other two almost paladins up.

Lance spots Keith’s knife in it’s sheath on his belt. His eyes go wide and looks up at Keith.

Keith doesn’t know he’s Galra.

Lance adds that to the mental list of things he needs to fix.

Keith pulls down a sheet that was hanging over a cork board. Lance had only seen it once, he tries to draw it all in again, trying to figure out all the information someone could get from it.

“What have you been working on?” Shiro asks, eyes flickering over every map, diagram, and connecting string.

“I can’t explain it, really,” Keith says. “After getting booted from the Garrison, I was kind of lost and I found myself drawn out to this place. It’s like something… some energy, was telling me to search.”

“I feel it too,” Lance mumbles.

“For what?” Shiro asks.

“Well, I didn’t really know at the time… until I stumbled across this area. It’s an outcropping of giant boulders with caves covered in these ancient markings. Each tells a slightly different story about a blue lion, but they all share clues, leading to some event, some arrival happening last night. Then you showed up.”

Lance can feel the blue lion making waves of energy, rushing out to try and pull him close like the tide.

“I should thank you all for getting me out. Lance, right?” Shiro says, reaching his metal arm out to Lance.

Lance takes it, giving it a small shake.

Shiro moves on to the other two.

“The nervous guy’s Hunk, I’m Pidge. They them,” they say. “Did anyone else from your crew make it out.”

Lance adds that too the mental list. Matt and Sam need to get back to Pidge.

“I’m not sure. I remember the mission and being captured. After that it’s just bits and pieces.”

“Yeah, sorry to interrupt, but back to the aliens. Where are they now? Are they coming? Are they coming for all of us? Like where are they at this very moment?” Hunk asks, nervously. 

Lance listens as they have their discussions, finding it hard to focus with blue whispering in the back of his mind.

Finally they set out into the desert.

“Lance, stop rushing ahead, you don’t know where we’re going,” Pidge says.

“Keith you know that pull you said you felt?” Lance asks.

“Yeah?”

“Well I’m feeling it too,” blue tugs on him. “Only it’s really strong and I know exactly where to go.”

“Well I guess we should be following you then,” Shiro says, looking to the others for confirmation.

“Only if we’re going in the same direction as the element is in,” Pidge says.

Lance rushes ahead. Walking quickly though the desert and it’s rock formations. Blue’s pulling him in, water pulling him closer to it’s source. He follows the downward path he remembers them taking, and enters the caves.

“Theses are the lion carvings I was telling you about, they’re everywhere around here,” Keith says.

Lance reaches out to touch one. Each and every one of the carvings glow with blue light, everyone but Lance tenses.

“They’ve never done that before,” Keith says.

Suddenly they’re falling down a waterfall that had opened beneath their feet. They all stand up, uncaring that they’re soaking wet, to look up at the massive blue lion in front of them.

Lance takes the first step forward, Keith at his side.

“This must be what’s been causing all this crazy energy out here,” Keith says. Keith places his hands on the force field. “I wonder how we get through this.”

“Maybe you just have to knock,” Lance says, grinning at the feeling of the crashing waves Blue is sending to him. He raises his fist and taps on the shield.

Blue light glows from the ground as a vision of Voltron fills each of their minds.

“Voltron is a robot! Voltron is a huge awesome robot!” Hunk yells.

“And this thing is only one part of it! I wonder where the rest of them are?”

“This is what they’re looking for.” Shiro stares up at the towering blue lion.

“Incredible.”

The Blue lion lowers it’s head for them to come inside. Lance rushes in, feeling the welcome home that Blue is sending him.

As his friends clamber in behind him, he focuses solely on his lion’s words.

**_Have fun._ **

He takes the request as an instruction. Flying out of the cave, breaking the rock that once surrounded them.

He ignore’s his friend’s pleas and requests to settle down as he recklessly flies with the Blue Lion.

He quickly takes her out of Earth’s atmosphere, no matter how much he wanted to be there again. He frowns, do all his friends in the future get to take breaks now? They don’t have the lions anymore. He hopes they’re choosing to rest.

“She says there’s an alien ship approaching Earth, we should probably stop it,” Lance says as they rush out, away from the blue skies.

“What did it say, exactly?” Pidge asks.

“She’s not talking,” Lance explains, “she just feeds thoughts into my head.”

“If this is the weapon they’re coming for, why don’t we just, I don’t know, give it to them?” Hunk suggests.

Lance tenses as Shiro begins to talk about the empire. The empire he’s going to have to destroy all over again.

Then the Galra ship is in front of them.

“Careful, man, this isn’t a simulator!” Pidge shouts as Lance begins the shred the ship.

“Good,” Lance says. “This is so much better.”

They’re drawing the ship away from Earth, flying past Kerberos, when the portal appears.

He’s never understood how it got there. He doesn’t know how the Blue Lion could have created this portal.

It doesn’t matter right now, unfortunately.

Equally so, his want to go through is insignificant. He’s got to consult their leader.

“The lion wants us to go through there.”

“Where does it go?” Pidge asks him.

“Arus?”

“What’s that?”

“I-- I don’t know. Shiro, you’re the senior officer. What should we do?”

“Whatever’s happening, the lion knows more than we do. I say we trust it, but we’re a team now. We should decide together.”

Everyone looks to Lance, Pidge even puts a hand on his shoulder.

“I’ll take that as a ‘we’ll go’,” Lance says as he shoots them through the portal.

As they exit the worm hole, Hunk throws up.

“Sorry,” he says uncomfortably.

“I’m just surprised it took this long,” Pidge says

“I don’t recognize any of these constellations. We must be a long way from Earth,” Shiro says.

“I think… I think the lion’s going home,” Lance says. He can feel the tears try to form in his eyes as blue tugs him towards the castle.

Everyone crowds around him as they hurtle toward the planet at high speed.

“Um, is it just me or is anyone else having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious Wormhole? Why are we listening to a robotic lion anyway?” Hunk asks.

“It got us away from that warship didn’t it?” Lance says.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re in an alien warship,” Keith says.

“Scared?” Lance taunts, trying to distract himself from Blue’s strong feelings.

“With you at the helm? Terrified,” Keith snaps back.

“Rude.”

“All right, knock it off!” Shiro interjects. “No one's happy to be in this situation, but we're here now. If we want to get through this, we've got to do it together.”

“What do we do?” Pidge asks.

“First we find out where we’re headed,” Shiro says. “Lance?”

“Probably that big castle up ahead.” Lance’s voice is airy, his breath light and practically gone. The strong pull Blue has to join with the other lions is almost entirely overwhelming. And he know’s Allura and Coran are in there, sleeping for 10,000 years.

As they fly towards the Castle of Lions, everything lights up.

Lance guides them all out as they land. The five start walking towards the castle. When they’re halfway there, the Blue Lion roars, activating the castle to open it’s doors.

They walk through the entrance to the castle and down the long hallway too the ballroom.

“Halt for identity scan,” says a robotic voice in altean.

“What was that?” Pidge asks.

“Neural-translator activated,” it says, this time in English.

A string of lights flash on through the castle, creating a guide for them too go.

“Who set this up?” Lance wonders aloud.

“So weird.”

They’re lead to a circular room, the cryochamber. It looks just like Lance remembers it being before it was turned into a crystal. Lance feels an odd sense of something akin to nostalgia in this place. It feels misplaced. Like finding something you thought was lost forever, but it actually had been lost for good at some point.

Allura and Coran rise out of the floor.

“Are these guys… dead?” Hunk asks.

The front of Allura’s pod disappears and Lance rushes to catch her. “Allur-” he half says. _Stupid_.

“Father!” She cries out as she falls into his arms. Lance almost wants to laugh at the familiarity of it, of having his teammate back. He holds in any emotion and helps her stand up.

“Who are you? Where am I?” Allura asks.

“I’m Lance, and this is— some kind of castle,” he says, changing course before he can use the ship’s proper title.

“Your ears…” Allura trails off, hands still holding her weight down on his forearms.

“Yeah?” Lance asks.

“They’re hideous, what’s wrong with them?”

“Rude,” Lance starts to say.

Then Allura is grabbing his ear and pinning his arm behind his back. Oops. He hadn’t meant to antagonize her.

“Who are you? Where is king Alfor? What are you doing in my Castle?”

“A giant blue lion brought us here!” Lance says.

“How do you have the blue lion?” Allura asks, letting go of Lance’s ear and arm. “What happened to it’s paladin? What are you all doing here? Unless…

“How long has it been?”

“We don’t know what you’re talking about,” Shiro said, Hunk hiding behind him. “Why don’t you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help.”

“I am Princess Allura of Planet Altea. Now, I’ve got to find out where we are and how long we’ve been asleep.” Allura places her hands on the computer in the center of the room, activating it.

Coran’s pod opens and he springs into action. “Enemy Combatants.” He rushes towards Lance but he quickly dodges out of the way.

“Whoa, chill!” Lance says, putting his arms up defensively.

“It can’t be,” Allura says, a deep sadness in her voice. Lance looks over at her.

“What is it?” Coran asks.

“We’ve been asleep for 10,000 years. Planet Altea and all of the planets in our solar system have been destroyed.

“Coran, father is gone. Our entire civilization… Zarkon,” she ends with bitter hatred.

Lance zones out as they discuss the emperor. The room feels so strange. It’s exactly how he remembers it. He remembers it… happier. Cheers when they woke up from being in the healing pod. Weird experiments Hunk and Pidge did with them. Rarely this… deep grief.

Allura takes them all to the bridge to find the lions.

“Whoa, theses are coordinates,” Pidge says. “The Black Lion looks like it’s in the same location as the Blue Lion.”

“Very observant,” Allura compliments. “That’s because the Black Lion is locked away in the castle.”

“To keep the Black Lion out of Zarkon’s hands, King Alfor locked it in the castle. It can only be freed if the other four lions are present,” Coran explains.

“As you have found, the lions choose their pilots. It is a mystical bond that cannot be forced. The quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in their lion. Together, they form something greater than science can explain.

“The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron.” Allura swings the stars around so the Black Lion is in front of Shiro. “It will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times, someone who’s people will follow without hesitation. That is why, Shiro, you will pilot the Black Lion.

“The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring.” Allura sweeps her hand across the stars so that the Green Lion hovers in front of Pidge. “Pidge, you will pilot the Green Lion.

“The Blue Lion is a loyal, caring, and sympathetic creature.” Allura gestures for the Blue Lion to fall in front of Lance. “It needs an open and friendly pilot that can match her in her boldness. Lance, you will pilot the Blue Lion.”

So that’s what the Blue Lion represents. Blue gives Lance a mental pat on the head. He wishes he’d never interrupted her the first time. Then maybe he wouldn’t have felt so worthless sometimes. Caring about people is definitely his speciality.

“The Yellow Lion is kind and protective.” Allura spins the stars, landing the Yellow Lion in front of Hunk. “Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above their own. Their heart must be mighty. As a leg of Voltron you will lift the team up and hold them together.

“The Red Lion is the most difficult to master.” Allura looks down at the holographic Red Lion floating in her hands. “It’s faster and more agile than the others, but it’s also more unstable. Its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instinct than skill alone. Keith, you will fly the Red Lion.”

He can feel the slight tug of the Blue Lion sitting outside the castle, telling them to get moving.

“We don’t have much time,” Shiro says. “Pidge and I will go get the Green Lion. Lance, you take Hunk and get the yellow one. Keith, you stay here. If you locate the Red Lion, go get it.”

“In the meantime, I’ll get the castle’s defenses ready.”

Lance is gone and back with the Yellow Lion before he knows it.

After they retrieve the rest of the lions, it’s time for battle.

“Listen up team Voltron!” Shiro says. “The only way to succeed is to give it all you’ve got. This looks bad, but we can do this! Are you with me?”

Blue is practically giggling for being back with her fellow lions. It’s an odd feeling that he doesn’t remember having the first time round. Most likely because he wasn’t as tuned to her thoughts.

The panic sets into his fellow paladin’s quickly as they struggle to figure out how to combine into Voltron. Panic sets in quicker when the particle barrier around the castle fails and they start getting sucked towards Sendak’s ship.

“What if we tried meditating,” Lance suggests. “Trying to get into each other’s headspace. We’re not going to become Voltron unless we feel united.”

“We are the universe’s only hope. Everyone is relying on us. We can’t fail! We won’t fail! If we work together, we’ll win together!”

Lance feels their energies connecting, their minds edging together with barely any seem.

For the first time in just two quick days, Lance feels connection to Voltron again. He feels the Red Lion, and Keith, and all the other paladins in their own lions as they combine to make Voltron.

The battle goes quickly as they shred Sendak’s ship from the inside.

When it’s over, Coran and Allura show them too their rooms. They all pass out after a bowl of food goo.

Lance feels satisfied that he’ll be able to create a better timeline.


	3. Chapter 3

After waking up the next morning, Lance stretches his aching muscles. While nothing the previous day had gone any better than the first time, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to do some good.

Lance stretches out his shoulders, wincing as they crack. His seventeen year old self isn’t as strong as his eighteen year old one. Luckily he can do something about that.

He showers and gets dressed. He pops into the kitchen for a bowl of food goo.

The Castle is quiet. He doesn’t know how quiet it’s supposed to be. He’s used to the ATLAS. The noise that came from the many passengers and constantly humming engines. There’s only seven people on this ship. And at this hour, Pidge and Hunk are definitely asleep. But the castle is so big, none of the sound from anyone awake could carry to him.

He doesn’t go to the training deck. That might draw suspicion. He opts for sit ups on his bedroom floor.

He takes it slow, knowing that he’s not going to be able to do as many as he was capable of before. He remembers once when Pidge got overwhelmed with training and started saying that she- they couldn’t do it. Shiro had gotten them all to take a break and began explaining how muscles worked, as well as muscle memory. Lance had seen the improvements the team started making when they started feeling better about their successes, even him.

Lance never got to match Keith though. As soon as he might of, Keith came back to the ship a few years older than seemed possible and with a lot more muscle mass than Lance thought he could achieve.

Maybe he’ll get to spar with Keith this time, possibly on even ground. After all, Lance knows how to fight with a sword, he just doesn’t have any of the muscle he used too. That should put them on even ground.

Lance manages thirty sit ups before he lays down on the floor. He wishes his mind would stop zooming through his thoughts like a kid with candy.

He inhales deeply. Trying to relax himself. He sits up and leans against his bed.

He focuses on his breath. In, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Out, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Repeat.

Before his gets halfway through his second breath alarms ring out and Allura’s panicked voice comes over the castle speakers.

“Everybody up! Zarkon’s attacking! The castle’s about to be destroyed! Go, go, go! We need Voltron, now!”

Lance begins sprinting too the bridge.

“Hurry, we can’t survive much longer!”

He’s one hallway away from the bridge when he stops running. He remembers this. He doesn’t have to be worried for his friend’s safety right now. It’s a drill.

Keith, runs past him onto the bridge, glaring back at him for walking.

He follows Keith in, Pidge entering just after him.

“Coran and I have been up for hours getting the castle’s systems back in order,” Allura explains. “We needed to test the alarms and we decided to test you as well.” She glances at Lance, Hunk, Keith, and Pidge, all not in uniform. “Guess which ones failed.”

Lance holds up his bayard. “At least I’ve got this.”

Allura sighs. “At least Lance has his bayard.”

“You got to sleep for 10,000 years, man. Monday, we didn’t know aliens existed. Now We’ve been in space for less than forty eight hours and we’ve never had the time to slow down and process whatever the hell’s going on,” Hunk says.

“I apologize for the rude awakening,” Allura concedes. “But you must understand the stakes of our mission.” She pulls up a computer panel and the holographic stars appeared just like the previous day, only without the locations of the lions. Each of the dots slowly grows red. “Over the past 10,000 years we have received distress beacons from the following locations. We must assume that Zarkon has conquered almost the entire known universe. An attack on your planet is immanent.”

That’s another thing. Lance isn’t going to let the Galra get to Earth this time.

“Our mission is to free all those planets. Coran and I are getting the Castle ready to leave Arus. During that time, you have to learn to form Voltron, so we can begin fighting Zarkon,” Allura says.

Learn to form Voltron… Does he actually know how to do that with these paladins. Forming Voltron changes slightly every time. Especially after the lion swap. The idea of it was always the same, but the feeling of it is going to be different. Lance has a slight connection to the Red Lion, but the Red Lion has no connection with her. This whole situation is different now. How is he going to connect with these people he doesn’t know quite so much about? These people that he hasn’t been through a war with.

“The Princess is right. Let's get to our Lions and start training,” Shiro says.

“Wait. But I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the Galra ship,” Pidge argues.

“Ah, negative, Number Five. I have you ranked by height, okay? The prisoners need to remain in the cryo-replenishers until tomorrow,” Coran informs them.

“That's right,” Allura says. “Now, get to your Lions.”

As they reach their lions Lance thinks about the old paladins. They had years fighting with each other before they even flew a lion, let alone formed Voltron. Lance feels like he’s practically starting from scratch. Only now, he’s gotten to read the training manual.

Shiro has them fly in perfect formation for about fifteen minutes. Lance has trouble keeping pace with them, though it doesn’t show.

Because you’re not flying in sync with them, you’re flying in sync with their future counterparts, he reminds himself.

Blue gives him an encouraging mental pat on the head.

They give up on the flying.

“Anybody have any other ideas?” Shiro asks.

“What if we tried bonding like normal people do?” Lance suggests. “If we get to know each other and with our lions, then maybe that could do something.”

Forming Voltron got easier and easier the longer they were with each other. After they got to Earth they spent a lot of time together. Everything clicked together as they spent more time doing things that weren’t Voltron together than ever before. Meeting each other’s family members, goofing off properly. That’s what kept them together while they saved the whole of reality.

Lance shakes the thoughts out of his head. He’s not there anymore. That’s a far off dream that might not come under the right circumstances.

“Ice breaker games?” Shiro asks.

“Yeah, I guess,” Lance says. He already knows so much about these people, not so much in the form of facts, the facts he knows haven’t happened yet. They hopefully might not ever happen.

“Everyone going to be okay with that? You’ve all had first days at school before,” Shiro asks.

Everyone gives the affirmative so Shiro sends Keith back to the Castle of Lions to get a picnic blanket or some equivalent.

Five minutes later he’s back and they all take a seat.

“I have every confidence that you four are smart kids,” Shiro says.

Shiro goes on to talk about his ex-fiancé. Lance had never heard him talk about Adam for more than a sentence and he definitely didn’t tell them he was his fiancé. Adam must be a much closer memory now, having only split with Adam a year ago and most of that year being… gone.

He moves on from Adam, leaving the next gentleman unnamed. He talks about him fondly, bringing up a memory only Lance could possibly recognize. Pidge wouldn’t know it, but Shiro is talking about Matt.

Lance watches Keith and Pidge relax as Shiro talks about his crushes. It’s a sense of trust that Pidge probably hasn’t been able to feel secure in almost ever. Does their brother know about them being Non-binary?

“It was hard for me to get into the Garrison,” Pidge says, as Shiro finishes off his story about Matt. All eyes are on them now. “They didn’t like that I’d be able to ask them to preform top surgery or get hormones. They didn’t want to pay for that. My mom didn’t know what to do about it. She filed a complaint with the governor, then they had to let me in even if they didn’t think I was qualified because they had gone against some anti-discrimination laws.”

“That sucks, Pidge,” Lance says.

Hunk talks about a time when he and his younger cousin took apart a toaster and put it back together. He had been fifteen and his cousin was twelve.

“Hunk…” Lance says. “Have you ever told me that story before?”

“Of course, buddy,” Hunk says. “It’s been my ice breaker for every class at the Garrison.”

Lance nods. He doesn’t remember that story.

“For a long time, I didn’t really have anyone in my life. And then when I was fourteen, Shiro showed up,” Keith says. “For all that time he was gone, it was terrible again.”

Lance tries to follow Shiro and Pidge’s lead. So he talks about growing up bisexual. How society tells you that you’re a total weirdo. How society tells you it’s immoral. Everything.

Everything that he had had time to fully process in space for two years.

Lance can feel their bonds strengthening with the lions and each other. He’s sure the other’s can’t though. He’s the one that’s attuned to their frequencies.

They come inside without an attempt to form Voltron again. Shiro tells Coran about what they had done to bond. Coran immediately tells them about mind melding and shoves them all onto the training deck.

Coran guides them through forming Voltron. It goes well, seemingly better than last time. Lance really feels like he’s forming Voltron.

He can feel the other’s trying to take peeks at each other’s heads. He tenses, trying to organize the future out of his thoughts. That’s easier thought of then done though. The Blue Lion keeps flicking for a moment into the Red Lion, or into the space between reality at the edge of the universe when there was almost no universe left. He shifts his intention solely to thinking of nothing but the Blue Lion.

His connection to Pidge cuts out as they throw their head piece onto the floor. Pidge folds their arms over their chest, breathing quickly and looking tense.

“Sorry.” They swallow. “I don’t think this exercise is going to work for me.” They swallow again. “Made me feel pretty dysphoric.”

Shiro stands up, taking off his own head piece, the other’s follow his lead. “That’s alright, Pidge. Why don’t we take a break?”

They lounge on the floor of the training deck while Coran brings them pouches of water. Lance’s first thought is that they’re capri suns, but that thought dissipates when he remembers where they are.

Coran and Allura talk in the corner as they sip their water.

When the two are done talking Coran comes over to them. “Lunch time!” he instructs.

Lance remembers this clearly. He follows Coran to the dining hall where Allura has set out dishes of goo.

Each of the paladins take their seat.

“Ahoy, young Paladins! I've whipped up a big batch of focusing food. After this meal, you'll be forming Voltron six times a movement and twice on the astral conflux!” Coran says. 

“Looks great, Coran,” Shiro says without looking at the meal in front of him. Coran pulls out a remote and presses a button. The Paladins are handcuffed together on each arm. Lance in-between Keith and Hunk. 

“Coran, think about this for another moment,” Hunk says, anger clear in his tone.

Only now does Lance realize how tired he is. All five of them have spread their emotion’s thin.

“Oh, this one's a classic. You get to feed each other, like a pack of Yalmors!” Coran grins. 

Allura joins them a moment later, and the bickering begins. 

None of them feel this is necessary. Lance thinks that this exercise could definitely be left in the first timeline. Their blood sugar is low, Lance is pretty sure he’s the only one who actually ate breakfast. His own patience is wearing thin as well.

Without the motivation of the other paladins cooperating, Lance has no reason to genuinely try this little challenge. He doubts they could even do it in the future. Either they’d be too hungry to try, or they’d just play with it.

“Oh, the Princess of what? We're the only ones out here and she's no Princess of ours!"

Then Allura attacks, and Lance grins. He didn’t dare hope he’d get to throw food goo at her again.

Now goo is flying everywhere. It’s a battle. A battle that only ends when they run out of ammunition. And they have plenty of food goo to get in each other’s hair.

When they run out of goo to toss, Allura takes a seat. All the paladins burst into laughter. It feels so natural. 

Allura joins in. “You did it! You’re working as a team!” she commends. 

Lance grins. Of course it’d be the same as last time. Ice breakers barely did shit, but now? Now they can form Voltron. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited: January 4th, 2021


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back :)

They trained the rest of the day. Shiro made sure they all got a complete night’s rest, especially Pidge, who had stayed up most of the previous night with the recovering prisoners.

The morning is like any other that Lance had experienced on the ship. Wake up, eat, train. When they’re finally done training, Coran tells them to come to the dining room.

“Hey, guys,” Coran says, holding a covered dish in his arms. “How was the Voltron work out?”

“We’re getting there,” Shiro answers.

“Well, in the mean time, I’ve made you an authentic paladin lunch!”

It smells awful. Just as bad as the last time he smelled it. The unveiling of the dish prompts Hunk to bring up and then have to explain kampuchea. He runs off to cook something for them all.

“Anybody know where Pidge is?” Shiro asks.

“They’re probably visiting with the prisoners, they’ll be waking soon,” Coran says.

“I better go check on them,” Shiro says, standing up to leave the room.

Lance glances at Keith then back at Shiro and stands up. “I’ll come with you.” Finding Matt and Sam Holt faster is one of his highest priorities at the moment. With the crash landed Galra ship still intact, Maybe he could help somehow.

“You're as anxious as me,” Shiro says when they walk in the room. Pidge is sitting on the steps, tapping their foot.

“These aliens we saved know something about my family. They have to!" Pidge said.

Lance puts a hand on Pidge’s shoulder. “Whatever they know, we’ll be able to find out something from them, even if it doesn’t lead us directly to your brother.”

Pidge frowns at the floor. They look up at Shiro. “They recognized you, didn't they, Shiro? They called you ‘Champion.’” Pidge pauses to think. “What does that even mean?"

“I don't know. I can't remember very much from that time. But the way those guys looked at me when we freed them... I don't know if I want to find out."

“We don’t even know what’s causing your memory loss,” Lance points out, he stands up, removing his hand from Pidge’s shoulder. 

The first of the aliens exited the pod a few moments later. The other’s soon followed. Lance, Pidge, and Shiro gave them all blankets and hot drinks to warm up. 

“So, how long were you held captive by Zarkon?” Pidge asks.

“Some for years. Decades, maybe. It's hard to tell. Time becomes a blur,” the alien called Xi responds.

“Then you must have been there when my dad and brother arrived. Sam and Matt Holt?” Pidge asks hopefully.

Lance hates that for all the things he knows about what’s to come, he doesn’t know the answer to Pidge’s questions.

“I never knew their names, but I certainly remember the other two Earthlings that arrived with Champion.”

“’Champion.’Why do you keep calling me that?” Shiro asks.

“You really don't remember?” Xi asks. Shiro shakes his head. “Unbelievable! You were a legendary gladiator, undefeated in the ring. You defeated an infamous Galra gladiator known as Myzax. That was the day you earned the name ‘Champion.’ I was there, as was the young Earthling. We were all prisoners, forced to fight for the entertainment of Zarkon. That day, we were set to fight Myzax, a vile beast many thought could never be defeated. Slaughter awaited us all. This 'Matt' was the first of us sent to fight. But fate had other plans. You were so thirsty for blood, you injured your fellow Earthling.”

Lance stares at Shiro.

“You attacked my brother? Why?” Pidge yells.

“No... it can't be true,” Shiro whispers.

“I was there. We all were,” Xi says.

Pidge turns back to Xi. “After my brother was injured, where was he taken?”

“I know not.”

“I don't believe it. There's got to be more to the story. I-I couldn't have hurt my friend,” Shiro says. Lance can’t help but agree with him. “Wait. That ship we were held captive on crash-landed on this planet. They'll have logs of prisoners, some... information."

“We can get them!” Pidge says.

“I’m coming with you guys,” Lance says.

“No offense, Lance, but are you sure you want too?” Pidge asks.

“Much offense taken, Pidge. Another set of hands isn’t going to hurt.”

The walk to the ruined ship is long. Lance skips along with his rocket boosters on his suit, encouraging Pidge and Shiro to join in on the fun. 

Lance knows the first time around, Pidge didn’t get all the information before the robeast attacked. 

When Pidge takes their first step into the ship, Lance figures out how to fix that.

“There’s probably a black box somewhere, right? We can take it back to the castle and we’ll have all the information on this shit,” Lance says.

Pidge’s eyes widen. “You’re right! Where would that even be located?”

The three climbed upwards in the wreckage, looking for something that could be a blackbox. 

“That’s gotta be it!” Pidge shouts, they point down into a pit in the middle of the wreckage. There’s a console that’s split in half, out of one end is an undamaged brick of a piece of metal. 

The three slide down metal towards it, using the rockets on their boots when necessary. 

It takes barely a minute to pry the case out of the broken computer. 

“I’m sure this is a galra blackbox,” Pidge says.

They pick up the box. It certainly looks heavy.

Lance hears rumbling above them.

“Wha—?” Shiro starts to say. 

Lance looks up. Something’s breaking through the atmosphere and coming straight for them.

“Oh, no.” Shiro swallows. 

“What is it?” Pidge asks, looking up. 

“Something just entered the atmosphere. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it's big, it's Galra, and it's coming right for us. We gotta go!”

The three start to climb out of the wreckage. Pidge is struggling with the box in their arms. 

“Give the box to me,” Lance rushes to say. He’s better at using his boots than the rest of them, he’s had years more practice. 

Pidge stumbles the box into his arms. As soon as Lance has a strong grip on it, he starts blasting his way up out of the crater. Shiro and Pidge are close behind them. 

Lance, Pidge, and Shiro run. They run and run. They can feel the air being pushed away from whatever’s hurling down to the planet hit their backs.

Rubble and dust explode away from the ship.

Blue is there.

She’s there and so are the Black and Green Lions. They shield them from the dust and rocks until it all clears away.

"Our Lions just saved us,” Shiro says.

“I didn't know they could do that,” Pidge says. “Huh? Um... Shiro?!"

Pidge points to the Galra ship, the shell falls away, revealing the gladiator inside.

“Get in your Lions!” Shiro orders. 

“Aye, aye,” Lance says. He sprints into Blue’s open mouth. 

The gladiator raises it’s arm, charging it’s energy sphere. 

The battle has begun.

^*^

Lance can’t fix everything. Things didn’t go so horribly the first time that there’s always something to fix. They did better fighting the robeast only because Lance had the skills to compensate for the others’ inexperience. Keith bonded with his lion just enough to form the sword, just on schedule.

The party happens that night just like it did the first time around.

No one’s going to get hurt this time though.

“C’mon Pidge,” Lance says. “We should guard the doorways to make sure no unsavory visitors try to get in.”

“Unsavory visitors?” they ask, following him down the long hallway to the doors on the outside of the castle. Rover’s hovering just behind them and following.

“Like wild animals or something,” Lance explains.

“Okay,” Pidge says.

Each one of them stands on either side of the doorway.

“Want to play a game or something?” Lance asks.

“Sure, what do you want to do?” Pidge asks.

“We could toss rover back and fourth,” Lance suggests.

“I’m sure he’d like that,” Pidge grins.

Pidge catches rover out of the air and tosses it towards Lance. The drone practically sings as it’s tossed through the air. Rover flies back and fourth between Pidge and Lance in long arcs.

“Have you decrypted anything from the blackbox yet?” Lance asks.

“I got started, but I haven’t found anything about my family yet,” Pidge says, focusing on tossing rover, avoiding Lance’s eyes.

“What are you going to do when you do decrypt it?” Lance asks.

Pidge considers themself for a moment. “I don’t know… I don’t know what I’m going to find. I’ll look wherever the trail leads, I guess.”

“You’ll have to take a day off from Voltron.” Lance smiles.

Pidge chuckles. “Yeah, I’ll have to take a day off.”

They toss rover back and fourth in silence. Lance scans the surrounding area for anything suspicious.

“Did you know my brother?” Pidge asks. “At the garrison, I mean.”

“Matt… You stole his haircut…”

_But not his glasses_ , Lance adds mentally.

“That’s him…” Pidge smiles.

Lance doesn’t know if he should lie or not. He considers the question for a few moments. “I knew him a bit, not sure he’ll remember me or not.”

“What was he like?” Pidge asks. “In classes in stuff.”

_I only knew him during war…_

“I didn’t have any classes with him, he’s too much older than me.”

“Oh…” Pidge says. “Right.”

“Sorry,” Lance says.

“It’s all right.”

Lance almost misses it. Another drone flies by overhead while Rover is in Pidge’s hands. His bayard is out in an instant. He activates it and fires. Little bits of shrapnel fly out. He shields his face.

“Whoa,” Pidge says. “That was close.” They walk over to where most of the drone’s broken parts are. “Someone was trying to set a bomb in the castle.”

Lance’s breathing evens out. “We’ve got to tell Shiro and Allura,” he says. “I don’t want either of us to be out here alone.”

“That’s alright,” Pidge says. They’re so unaffected by it. It’s weird. Because to them it isn’t a threat or something to panic over, it’s just something strange. The Galra are going to ruin that. “We can use our comms.”

Lance nods. “Allura, Shiro,” Lance says while holding down the coms button on his suit.

“Yes, Lance?” they both answer.

“There was a drone set to bomb the castle flying in. I shot it down, be on alert.”

“Thank you, Lance,” Allura says in her fake diplomatic voice. It’s the voice that she uses when she’s trying to hide how scared she is.

“I’m going to come to you guys, okay?” Shiro says.

“Okay,” Pidge and Lance say.

Pidge still sounds fine. They’re not worried. Lance is glad, they shouldn’t be worried. Because Lance can help.

Shiro comes out to them and examines the drone.

“ Lion warriors, our village is under attack! We need help!" The Arusian king runs up to them. 

“Let's get to the Lions!” Shiro orders. He presses a button on his coms. “The village is under attack, everyone get to your lions. Coran close the castle doors.”

“On it,” Keith, Hunk, and Coran’s voices come through the coms.

Everyone runs to their lions and flies out to the village. Lance knows there’s not many real sentries here. 

Lance flies over the village. It looks like every home is on fire. Something explodes.

“We’ve got to put out these fires!” Shiro says.

“The sentries will just start more,” Hunk says.

“Wait!” Pidge says. “Look closer.”

Lance presses a few buttons to zoom in on the sentries.

“There all broken,” Pidge says.

“It’s a trap,” Keith says.

“That bomb was supposed to shut down the castle,” Lance says.

“Good thing Coran and Allura are guarding it,” Shiro says, trying to refocus them. “Think, team, we’ve got to put these fires out.”

Lance couldn’t think of anything that wouldn’t make everyone overly impressed with him and also freeze the arusian village solid. 

“We could fly around in circles,” Pidge suggests. “Create a vacuum and take away the fire’s fuel.”

“Great idea, Pidge,” Shiro says. “We’ll have to fly in tight formation.”

The lions gather in the air above the village. 

“On my mark,” Shiro says. They all line up in a circle. “Fly.”

The only mess up is when Pidge and Keith run into each other and Keith runs into Shiro. It stutters their circle but no harm is done. They keep time with each other. They suck the air out of the village. 

The fires go out and the sentries fall over. 

On the hillside, Lance can hear the Arusians cheering. 

The lions fly back to the castle. Everyone falls onto the couches in the lounge.

“God it’s been a long day,” Keith complains.

“At least Sendak hasn’t taken over the castle and is turning the lions over to Zarkon,” Lance says.

Shiro laughs.

“We can’t just leave Sendak here,” Pidge mumbles. “We’re going to have to do something about him.”

“We’ll have to set a trap,” Shiro says.

“How?” Lance asks.

“Can’t we just go after him?” Keith says.

“Going after him is certainly an option, but it’d be easier if we were luring him somewhere,” Shiro says.

“We don’t have anywhere to lure him too,” Keith says.

“We could just ambush him,” Lance suggests.

“I’m so tired,” Hunk says, he runs his hands down his face. “I don’t want to ambush anyone until I’ve slept.”

Shiro nods. “All of you can go to bed,” he says. “The universe is safe for the night.”

^*^

Lance follows his orders and goes to his room. Like everyone else he’s exhausted. He’s certainly feeling much better than the first time this day happened though.

He wakes up the next morning when Hunk knocks on his door.

“Good morning?” Lance says.

“Shiro’s got Haxus and Sendak in the brig,” Hunk says. “We don’t have to fight anyone today.”

Lance smiles at Hunk’s glee.

“Did you make breakfast or something?” Lance asks, stepping into the hallway.

“Nope, but you’re going to help me make some,” Hunk says.

“Okay then,” Lance says.


	5. Chapter 5

Hunk’s breakfast is amazing. Lance doesn’t really help, he just sits there and listens while Hunk talks. There are no eggs or livestock on the planet, but Hunk manages to make something like cheesy potatoes. He got the creme from a fruit and Arus has lots of plants that are essentially potatoes.

The paladins eat breakfast in the kitchen. They sit on the few barstools that there are and everyone else sits on the floor. Shiro makes sure they don’t get into a food fight.

When they’re done eating, Lance stays with Hunk to wash the dishes. Everyone else goes down to the brig. They’ve got to knock Sendak and Haxus unconscious and put them in cryopods. It’s the safest thing for the paladins and the enemy prisoners.

“Everyone come to the bridge for takeoff,” Allura says over the castle’s coms.

Lance and Hunk head up too the bridge and take their seats.

Being in the castle has been amazing. He missed it so much. The Atlas was cool, but it was made for war. The castle contained all his fun memories. All the memories from before Keith left the team. All the memories having fun with his teammates.

Everyone is relaxed and happy as they pull away from Arus’ surface.

Soon their floating through space.

“Hey, Pidge,” Lance says, the first one to leave his seat. “Do you think that Shiro’s arm might help with decrypting the code in the blackbox?”

Pidge considers it. “Probably. Shiro, are you up for me plugging a bunch of wires into your arm?”

“I’m down,” Shiro says.

“Awesome.”

Shiro follows Pidge out of the room.

“So where are we going, Allura?” Lance asks. They’re not headed straight for the Balmera because the crystal hadn’t been blown up.

“We could go almost anywhere,” Allura says. She pulls up a map, showing hundreds of red dots, representing the conquered planets. “There’s a recent distress signal here.” She points to a small moon off of an uninhabited planet. “They’re the closest.”

“Set a course,” Keith says.

Ten minutes later Hunk tries to make his exit from the bridge.

“I’m going to—”

“We’re coming back to the bridge, we have something really interesting to show everyone!” Pidge says over the coms.

Hunk groans and sits back down in his chair.

Pidge and Shiro are back after a few minutes.

“I was looking in Shiro’s arm for something that could help break the code on the blackbox like Lance suggested,” Pidge says. Shiro takes a seat and Pidge starts plugging wires into his arm and opens their laptop.

“You found something weird,” Hunk guesses.

“I did.” Pidge plugs their laptop into their chair and takes a seat. A hologram of a screen pops up in the middle of the room for them all to look at. “I found this repeating series of numbers. There everywhere in there. Turns out, there coordinates.” A line connects the ship’s current coordinates too the coordinates that Ulaz put in Shiro’s arm.

“What’s at the coordinates?” Hunk asks.

“It looks like a xanthorium cluster,” Coran says, enlarged images pop up next to the coordinates.

“Are we going to follow them?” Hunk asks.

“I don’t see why not,” Pidge says.

“Because they were obviously put there by the Galra,” Allura says.

“I don’t think so,” Shiro says. “I don’t think I got out of there without help. There’s got to be rebel groups out there, I think they’re the ones that put the coordinates in there.”

“Makes sense to me,” Lance says. “We should check it out.”

They have to check it out. If they don’t check it out they’re going to loose the war and Keith is never going to find out he’s Galra.

Allura takes a deep breath. “All for seeing where the coordinates lead, say aye.”

“Aye,” all seven of them say.

“Excellent,” Allura says. “I’ll plot a corse. We can stop by planets that have sent out distress signals on our way there.”

“Where are we stopping first?” Pidge asks.

“First stop is still this moon,” Allura displays a picture over the stars in front of them.

Lance recognizes that moon. That’s where Nyma and Rolo are. It only takes another three minutes for them to get there and land on the moon’s surface.

“You don't know how glad we are to see some friendly faces,” Rolo says when they approach. “Most folks don't want to get tangled up with anyone who's on the run from the Galra.”

Lance has his guard up. They may be allies in the future, but they’re scavengers now. Even so, scavengers need help running from Zarkon too.

“So, you guys are fighting the Galra?” Keith asks.

“Well, I don't think Zarkon is exactly quaking in his boots at the three of us, but we do what we can,” Rolo says. “I’m Rolo. This is Nyma, and our cyber-unit, Beezer.”

“Hi,” Nyma says. She’s using her sweetest voice. 

“Cool robot!” Pidge says and rushes forward to look at Beezer.

Lance smiles at them, some things never change.

“Was your ship damaged in a fight?” Shiro asks.

“Yeah, we've really been through it with the Galra.” Rolo pats the side of his ship, making the holo metal thud. “Parts are hard to come by. Luckily, we were able to limp to this moon about a week ago. If you didn't pick up our distress signal, I didn’t—”

“We're happy to help,” Allura says before he finishes. “I am Princess Allura of Altea, and from now on, you won't be alone fighting the Galra. You'll have the Paladins of Voltron by your side.”

“… Okay.”

“Voltron hasn’t been around for ten thousand years,” Lance explains. “Voltron is five lions that combine into one big ship.”

“We’re fighting for freedom against the Galra,” Allura says.

“I’d love too see it,” Rolo says.

“What help do you need with your ship?” Lance asks.

Rolo opens up a panel on the side of his ship. “Pretty much our whole flaxum assembly is shot. I don't know what kind of extra parts you carry in this rig of yours. I've never seen anything quite like it."

“I’m sure we can get you back up and running,” Allura says. “Give Hunk a list of what you need. Coran can show you where to find it.”

“Okay,” Hunk says.

“We'll go with you. Don't want you to have to carry all that yourself. Come on, guys,” Rolo says.

Lance cuts him off when he realizes no one else is going to do it. “You can wait out here,” Lance says. “Someone else can help Hunk carry everything.”

“Lance, don’t be rude,” Allura scolds.

“Last time we let people into the castle we almost got bombed,” Lance reminds her. “I think some healthy caution is necessary.”

“Lance is right,” Shiro says. Those words are never going to stop meaning the world coming from Shiro. “I’ll go with Hunk to get the spare parts.”

“Hey, I don't take it personal. That's how it is out here,” Rolo says. ”You've got to look out for your own.”

Lance sighs in relief.

Hunk and Shiro head back into the castle with a list Rolo printed from Beezer. 

“My planet was destroyed by the Galra and I was taken captive. I managed to escape, but not before I lost something.” Rolo displays his prosthetic left leg. He taps it with his knuckles, making it clank.

Hunk and Shiro come back with the parts Rolo asked for. Rolo starts rummaging through the box.

“What can you tell us about Zarkon's forces? Where are they concentrated?” Lance asks. 

“Well, his Command Ship sits right in the center of the Empire. He mostly calls the shots from there and has his minions do the work, depending on who's closest,” Rolo says. “This is the territory of a real nasty bugger named Sendak.”

Lance categorizes the information in his mind. Separating what he knows from what the other paladins don’t know. 

“Oh, we've met,” Keith says.

“How far are we from the center?” Lance asks.

“We're way out on the fringes."

Rolo sends Hunk back into the castle for another spare part when he’s done rummaging.

Lance has to know as much information on the Galra as he can. Things are different from how he left them. “So, are there more freedom fighters? Any kind of organized resistance to the Galra?”

“Not that I’ve heard of. I’m sure there’s small resistances somewhere. But the only safe places are the planets that haven’t been colonized yet,” Rolo says.

“Well, we're going to change all that,” Keith says.

“That's good to hear, but I've got to warn you, it's pretty bad out there. You guys don’t seem like you know what you’re up against,” Rolo says.

“If we don’t we’ll figure it out soon enough,” Lance says.

They finish their repairs. Nyma looks sad, she kept trying to join in on Keith and Shiro’s side conversation, but they weren’t giving her much room to talk. 

“I’m glad this went smoothly for you guys,” Lance says.

Everyone heads back to their ships. 

The thieves couldn’t steal anything from Voltron this time around.

Just one more thing that Lance has fixed. Even better because this one was entirely his fault in the first place.

They launch off the moon and set corse for the next planet in distress. This time the Balmera will be saved without having to worry about Shay at the center of the planet.

“Balmera are living creatures that make the crystals that power altean technology,” Coran explains. “We’re going to be freeing one of these creature’s from the Galra.”

It doesn’t take long to get there, and when they do, Coran pulls up pictures of the planet’s surface.

“It’s worse than I thought,” Coran says. “They’re mining the poor creature for its crystals.”

“Are there people on this planet?” Lance asks.

“Yes, the Balmera provides a symbiotic relationship with the creatures that inhabit it. I’m afraid of what the Galra have done to them…”

“Okay, so we can't go into the tunnels, guns blazing,” Shiro says. “Plan B. We figure out how to draw the Galra up to the surface and battle them out there."

“Wait, I know! If we attack all of this big mining stuff on the surface, the Galra troops will have to come out to defend it,” Hunk says. “Then we beat them up, head down to the tunnels, Voltron saves the day.”

"But how will we know how many are left down in the tunnels?" Keith asks.

“We can track the Galra and the Balmerans using Biothermal Life Indicator Point Technology,” Allura says. “One of you will need to fly around the Balmera and drop sensors into the shafts on each side.”

“I can do it. I just modified the Green Lion with the invisible maze's cloaking ability. I should be able to fly around unnoticed,” Pidge says.

Lance hasn’t changed everything, perfect. He smiles.

Keith finds out about Red’s fire powers. Lance gets to use Blue’s ice ray.

**_Thanks girl._ **

Unfortunately even though Shay isn’t at the core of the balmera, the fighter jets are still hanging out in their hanger.

So, just like the first time, Lance gets to go close the hanger doors with Keith. 

“The entire hangar's only being guarded by a few Sentries,” Keith notices. Keith activates his bayard and gets ready to jump down for a fight. “Lets go!”

It’s like deja vu. Only Lance knows he’s lived this before. He grabs Keith by his collar. 

“Whoa, w-w-whoa, whoa! Cool your jets, Keith! Don't you remember all that stuff about this Balmera being alive?”

Keith pauses. “Oh. Right.”

“So, you can’t just blow everything up like a psycho.”

“Oh, You got a better idea?”

“I do. We sneak can into the control room and shut down the bay doors. That'll trap the ships in.”

“That—! Actually... is a better idea,” Keith says.

Lance is glad he hasn’t lost his touch. Past Keith is different than future Keith. 

Lance decides that he absolutely hates thinking about his friends as people from the future. It’s a sticky slimy thought that makes him feel like he’s going to throw up.

“Thank you.”

The two walk across the catwalk, staying low so none of the sentries below can see them. Keith cuts a circle in the ceiling of the control room. Lance lands on the sentry drone. 

“I’ll keep lookout for the guards,” Lance says. “You can figure out how to close it.”

Lance watches for drones coming down the hallway while Keith examines the control panel. The hanger doors start closing. Keith slices through the control panel with his sword. The two of them run out of the room. Lance shoots the door unlock pad.

“Paladin’s we need your support, we’re under heavy fire,” Allura says.

“On it,” the five paladins say. Lance and Keith rush back to their lions.

Everyone’s in the sky again, taking down ship after ship.

“Holy shit, there are so many of them,” Hunk says.

A battle ship enters the atmosphere and fires it’s ion canon at the castle. 

“Paladins!” Allura yells out. “We need Voltron.”

Forming Voltron is now the easy part for them all.

“Form the sword so we can knock out the ion cannon,” Shiro orders.

Keith forms the sword, Voltron slices through the ion canon.

“Full power on the blasters! Locked onto target. Fire!” Allura says. Voltron gets out of the way of a shot that goes through the Galra ship, causing a massive explosion.

Allura sighs in relief. “Just in time. There are no more ships or sentries in the tunnels of the planet or on the planet’s surface,” she explains. “We need to land for the ship to recharge.”

The ship lands on the planet’s surface.

Something comes hurling through the planet’s atmosphere. It’s another robeast pod.

Before Shiro can say anything, Lance rushes to speak. “Let’s slice through it before it wakes up!”

“Good plan, Lance,” Keith says.

“Alright,” Shiro says. “Let’s go for it.”

Voltron runs towards the pod and slices through it just as steam starts to his out of the cracks of the metal.

There’s lizard goop everywhere. Smile coats the sword.

“Are we done now?” Hunk asks desperately.

“I think so,” Shiro says.

Voltron dismantle and the lions land in front of the castle.

Balmerans start to come up from the mines. Lance exits his lion. He sees the glow under the castle. Coran and Allura exit the castle. Lance stares at the glowing. It’s just like last time.

“The ground beneath your ship appears healed,” a Balmeran says.

Lance heard about the ceremony the first time. Getting to watch it is amazing. Hundreds of Balmerans come to the surface to participate. Everyone gathers around the castle and Allura.

The light of quintessence covers the entire planet. It spreads as far as Lance can see. It’s amazing.

Crystals form all over the planet as the ritual ends.

Allura immediately gets taken to a healing pod. Shiro stays behind to speak too the Balmerans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <3


	6. Chapter 6

Lance has been in the past for one week.

One week.

“I miss my friends,” Lance whispers to Blue.

**_I know._** Blue tells him.

He’s looked at his friends every day that he’s been here, but he still misses them, so much.

They’re the same people, but there all just… different.

Pidge is different.

Lance doesn’t know how to talk to Hunk.

Lance couldn’t even begin to know how to start with Shiro. Does Lance even know anything about Shiro?

Bickering with Keith is somehow difficult.

All of his memories with these people just don’t exist.

There not gone. They’re somewhere. Obviously there somewhere, they’re in Lance’s head and they’re in the castle’s hallways. They’re all around.

Those memories just aren’t a part of his friends. His friends who he barely recognize without this stupid war baked into their every thought.

His friends who he’s lied too every day since he showed up here. But how could he possibly fucking tell them.

His friends have been in space for six days. He’s been in the past for seven. Lance feels like crying. He’s barely done anything it feels like.

**_You’ve done everything_** , Blue contradicts.

“Thank you.”

Lance smiles.

“I’m glad you can see inside my mind.”

Blue purrs. ** _I may not remember, but I know_**.

Lance hums.

^*^

Lance helps take Allura from the healing pod back to her room with Coran. Then everyone goes to Sendak and Haxus’ cryopods.

Lance can relax today. They’re en route to their next planet and the crystal wasn’t replaced by a galra crystal so the castle wasn’t corrupted.

They won’t be flying into any suns today, that’s for sure.

Coran explains how the memory extraction works.

Slowly everyone trickles away.

“ Well, I'm afraid I can't wait here any longer, either. I have a million duties to attend to. Between fighting off those ships and performing the Balmeran rejuvenation ceremony, the old Castle of Lions has taken quite a beating. Every system needs to be recharged and repaired,” Coran says. 

Then just Lance and Shiro are left. Lance lays with his legs propped vertically against the wall. He still misses his muscles.

He almost considers heading to the training deck with Keith. Sendak is more interesting though. Lance doesn’t know what happened the first time. Sendak got ejected into space though. 

“Why haven’t you gone to do something else?” Shiro asks.

“This is probably the most interesting thing happening right now,” Lance says.

“You’re a weird kid.”

Lance frowns. Dear god, he’s seventeen.

They wait in silence until Shiro speaks up, talking to Sendak.

“I know you're in there, Sendak. I know you have all the answers. Give them to me.” Shiro slams his fist onto the pod Sendak is housed in. 

Lance freezes. His heart goes cold. Lance fixes his position, more alert now. He sits up straight with his legs crossed. He presses himself to the wall. 

“You're a broken soldier! You can't hold out forever!” Shiro says. Purple goop trickles out into the memory storage container. “So, you can hear me.”

Lance takes a deep but quiet breath. He relaxes his shoulders. This is Shiro. The paladin of the black lion is in front of him. He’s not a galra clone. Lance squeezes his eyes shut and opens them again. He breathes out, fully relaxed now. 

Guilt wells inside him. Is he ever going to stop having that response to Shiro being angry?

“What was the first rank you held in Zarkon's army? Where did you find the Red Lion? What is Zarkon's greatest weakness?” Shiro asks. Lance realizes he’s trying to probe the information out of Sendak’s brain.

Lance waits and watches. Shiro’s breathing picks up oddly. 

“If you were to attack Zarkon, where would you strike?”

Shiro’s breathing picks up more.

“No! I'm not like you,” Shiro says.

Lance jumps to his feet. 

“Shiro, breathe,” Lance says. He cautiously approaches the panicked paladin.

Shiro runs his hand along the side of his head and breathes shakily.

“In, one, two, three, four,” Lance says. Lance breathes with him for a few minutes. Lance sinks down too the floor when Shiro does. Lance keeps counting.

“H-how, how did you know how to do that?”

Lance shrugs. “Practice.”

Shiro gives him a confused look, but doesn’t pry.

“Are you alright now?” Lance asks.

Shiro nods. “I think I’ll refrain from trying to interrogate the scary sleeping prisoner for now,” he jokes.

Lance touches the memory jug. “I mean, hey, we got some memories out of him.”

“That we did.”

“Do you want to go get Coran so we can figure out what the next thing is?” Lance asks.

“Are you sure you want me to leave you down here? It’s kind of creepy.”

“Better than me leaving you down here,” Lance reminds him.

“Or we could use the coms,” Shiro says.

Lance’s face falls. “Or we could use the coms.”

Shiro presses a button and asks Coran to come check on everything.

He does, everything’s going well with the memory transfer. Allura is still asleep. Pidge is decrypting the cube searching for their brother.

Lance and Shiro decide to continue waiting with Sendak.

^*^

The next day the paladins start to dig through Sendak’s memories. It’d been running all night.

“The memory extractor doesn’t work very well on unwilling participants,” Coran explains. “We didn’t get very much information.”

Lance shrugs. Hopefully that means they won’t go to the space base and get Allura captured.

“ Somewhere inside Sendak's memories we should be able to find the inside information that gives us the key to take down Zarkon,” Allura says.

They chat any wait as Pidge digs through the memories for something of use.

“I found something!” Pidge shouts. The paladins rush over to their side of the bridge. “I’ve looked between the blackbox data and Sendak’s memories. Most of the stuff in Sendak’s head is an absolute garbled mess, but I’ve found something.”

“What is it?” Shiro asks.

“Some kind of Universal Station,” Pidge says.

“Universal Station? Like, the kind of station that controls the entire universe?” Hunk asks.

_Damnit_.

Lance knows they’re going to want to go. Of course they’re going to want to go, especially if it doesn’t take them off course for getting to the blade’s base.

“I'm pulling up the location of your Universal Hub Station Base on our screens now,” Coran says. He brings up the image of the planets that hide the universal station.

“There’s nothing there,” Lance says. 

“Our long-range sensors are unable to find anything at those coordinates,” Coran says.

“Maybe he remembered it wrong,” Keith suggests.

“Or maybe we just stumbled across a top-secret base in Sendak's memories,” Pidge says excitedly. 

_Damnit_.

“Only one way to find out. Let's go take a look,” Allura says.

“Wait wait wait, we’re already on course for our next stop,” Lance reminds them. 

“If we find this base first,” Allura says, she pulls up the holographic map. “Then we can go straight to the coordinates that were in Shiro’s arm.” Lines connect the locations.

“We don’t even know if anything’s there though,” Lance continues to protest. 

Everyone’s looking at him. 

“Why do you care so much?” Keith asks.

“I-I don’t.” _Fuck_. “Whatever. Yeah, no reason not to check it out.”

Allura’s going to get fucking captured by Zarkon because Lance is too much of a fucking dumbass to come up with an argument.

“Set a course, Coran,” Allura says.

The ship starts traveling towards it’s new destination. 

Lance leaves the bridge and starts walking around the castle. He walks down the long hallways to places the other paladins have yet to see. 

He tosses his bayard in the air and catches it as he walks. 

He walks down the hallway where the airlocks are and remembers when he almost got shot into space. Keith had saved him.

But that never happened. It never would.

That’s better, right?

Less life or death situations are better. 

When he gets hungry he starts walking back towards the dinning hall to get some lunch.

He hears his friends talking inside. 

“I’m worried about Lance,” Hunk says.

“I’m sure he’s fine, Hunk. He’s never liked it when plans suddenly change when they don’t have too,” Pidge says.

“Yeah, but he hasn’t been hanging out with me at all. Whenever I go to hang out with him he’s not trying to hang out with me at all,” Hunk says. “It’s weird.”

“It’s been a weird time for all of us, Hunk,” Shiro reminds him. “I’m sure he’d appreciate you talking to him about it, though.”

“He’s so closed off, I don’t get it. He hasn’t even been complaining about Keith or flirting with anybody,” Hunk says. “Those are like… his default states.”

“You’re his closest friend, Hunk,” Keith says. “Do you think we need to say something to him?” 

Someone sighs, probably Hunk.

“I guess… I guess when he’s ready to talk about whatever’s going on in his head, he’ll talk to me about it.”

Lance feels like crying. Fuck.

Of course Hunk noticed he was acting weird. 

He stands in the hallway while their conversation shifts to something else before coming into the kitchen. 

They’re all sitting on the floor. He comes in and serves himself some goo for lunch and sits on the floor with them. He nods at them but stays quiet. What is he supposed to say after overhearing something like that?

He hadn’t been treating anyone differently on purpose. That’s just how he treated them. Their relationships have changed over the years. He’s picking up their relationship somewhere that doesn’t exist yet. 

When he finishes eating, everyone else is still just talking, their empty plates forgotten.

“Hunk do you want to go shoot stuff on the training deck?” Lance asks.

“Heck yeah I do!”

The two jump up.

“Race you there!” Lance says. Lance wins, he always wins. Even before they all got strong, Lance was faster than Hunk.

Before they can start the simulation, Allura calls them too the bridge. 

They arrive at the space base. It’s there, the gravity from the three planets that surround it hiding it from long range sensors.

They all suit up and head in under the green lion’s cloak.

They ambush the guards and get to work hacking into their databases.

Everything is working smoothly until a ship docs at the station. It happens just like last time.

It docks. Hunk pretends to be a sentry. Allura suggests boarding the ship.

“That’s horribly dangerous,” Lance protests.

“I’ll go with her,” Shiro says.

There’s nothing more for Lance too do. He can’t exactly tell them he knows exactly what’s going to happen when they board that ship.

So they go.

“What do you think they have in all those giant containers?” Keith asks.

He’s watching the transfer of the quintessence from the sentries to the druids, who will take it to the refinement room. Lance supposes that’s one plus of this mission. If he can’t convince Keith not to go find out what we’re doing, Allura will tell everyone what quintessence is and what it means that the Galra are using it.

“Well, I suspect that it's sporks,” Hunk says.

Lance chuckles.

“What? This is an advanced race we're talking about here. Surely, they've learned that it's foolish to have forks and spoons when one tool will efficiently do the job.”

“Sporks are so uncomfortable,” Lance contradicts.

“Maybe this guy will tell us,” Pidge says. They type into their laptop, connected to the sentry. “What is coming in and out of this station?”

“Interrogation detected. Initiating lockdown.”

“Not talking, eh?” Pidge begins typing furiously fast.

“Whoa. Check out this guy.” Keith spots the druid. “Whatever's happening here that requires the base to be kept secret must have something to do with that scary dude. I'm going to go check it out.”

“How about you don’t?” Lance says. “What if you didn’t tell the Galra we were hiding out on their very important top secret base?”

Lance doesn’t know if he should go with Keith or not. He can’t help Allura at all, but maybe he can help Keith. 

“Keith, think about this!” Lance tries to persuade him.

Keith walks out of the room without responding to him.

Should he follow?

He decides to stay put. Keith made it out fine last time. He can make it out fine this time. 

Lance drums his fingers on the floor anxiously, glaring at the walls.

“Lance, are you doing alright?” Hunk asks.

Lance looks up. 

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Okay, Pidge, start the download,” Shiro’s voice comes through the comms.

“Generating access code. We’re in.”

Pidge’s hacker voice is never going to stop making Lance smile.

“Pidge, I think there's a problem,” Shiro says.

“Sit tight. I'm trying to work around this.”

Lance waits as information gets transferred this way and that. 

“Coran, you need to see this,” Keith says over the coms. Everyone gets the recording from his visor. 

“What is that?” Pidge asks.

“The material is quintessence, the substance with the highest known energy per unit volume in the universe,” the sentry says.

“What? Impossible,” Coran says.

“Raw quintessence material is transported here from throughout the galaxy and refined into standardized Galra fuel requirements,” the sentry continues.

“Did you guys hear that?” Pidge asks.

“I can't believe it! They've found a new way to acquire quintessence!” Coran says.

“Guys, I'm going to steal some of this quint-whatever,” Keith says.

“Do not,” Lance argues. “We already know what it is, we know what there doing, just get back here.”

Keith, predictably ignores him. 

Can one fucking thing go right for Lance today. One goddamn thing.

It only takes three minutes before Keith is shouting over the coms.

“Pidge, I need an extraction now! Hurry!”

Lance, Hunk, and Pidge rush to the Green lion and collect Keith.

Lance knows what’s happening next. He glares at the floor of the Green lion.

“Great work, paladins,” Allura says.

Allura made it out.

Lance looks up. They’re all here. They’re all alright.

“How’d you guys make it out of there?” Lance asks.

“Allura is very good at throwing robots,” Shiro says.

Shiro’s got a short scab on his chin.

“How’d you get that?” Pidge asks, pointing to their own chin.

“Sentries had some hot weapons,” Shiro says casually.

“We’ll get Coran to look at it when we get back to the ship,” Allura says.

When they get back to the castle, the paladin’s hover anxiously around Shiro as Coran inspects the cauterized cut.

Lance spots Keith’s hand out of the corner of his eye. His flight suit has been torn, but his hand wasn’t injured.

“What happened to your hand?” Lance asks.

“I crashed into one of the big containers of that energy stuff,” Keith says. “The glass broke and it cut my hand… I think. I couldn’t really tell. But that stuff was on it too, and it sunk into my skin and my hand looked just fine.”

Pidge put a finger on their chin and stared at Keith’s hand. “Like how Allura healed the Balmera?” Pidge asked, their finger now pointing at Keith.

“I guess?” Keith shrugs.

Shiro’s chin is fine. Coran puts some gauze on it for protection.

Before Shiro can call for a training session, Lance speaks up.

“We basically haven’t stopped running around worrying about random shit since we had that picnic. We need to not do that.”

“Alright. Everyone gets the rest of the day off. No training,” Shiro says.

Everyone heads back to their rooms except Lance.

“Coran, can I have a notebook?” he asks.

After about 20 minutes of searching random parts of the castle, Lance gets his hands on both a notebook and a pen.

Something’s been bothering him. He can’t keep it all in his head.

On his way back to his room, Lance checks on everybody.

Pidge is looking through the blackbox, Lance knows decrypting it is their form of relaxing.

Hunk is chilling on his bed, thinking about the ingredients they had to work with on the ship. They don’t have much, so he hasn’t really come up with anything yet. Lance tells him where he got his notebook and pen from so he could write down anything he thought of.

Lance walks in on Keith who was lying on his bed. He’s shoved something under his pillow as soon as Lance had stepped into the room. His knife, Lance guesses. Lance leaves him be.

Shiro is doing some sketching in his room, apparently having already found the notebooks.

Lance settles down in his own room. It’s weird that this is his room now. His room was on the atlas for long enough that it had overridden this one.

He opens his note book up, he goes three pages in. There are many things that are different. He goes through and makes sure to write down all of them.

-Pidge is Nonbinary

-Pidge doesn’t wear their brother’s glasses

-Keith’s knife looks different

-Allura wears her hair in a braid

-Shiro and Allura somehow both made it out of the ship without him changing anything.

How could things have changed.

He traveled two years into the past. How can things change like that.

Unless…

Honerva had destroyed all the universes…

Lance has no clue what brought him back in time. It’s becoming clear to him now, though, he wasn’t just brought back in time.

He’s in an alternate universe.

Any number of things could be different. Everything is deceptively similar.

Who knows if there’s an Altean colony out there somewhere? or if Oriande exists here? Who knows if Lotor exists?

All of these are questions Lance can’t know the answers too just yet. He turns to a page and fills it with unknowns that could effect things.

Lance exhales and closes his universe travel notebook. He closes his eyes and takes a short nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading... I think there was something I was planning on saying, but I forgot it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a long one!

Shiro makes them take the next day off too, but on the third they train like normal after breakfast. Then, Allura calls them to the bridge.

“As promised, we won’t be going to another planet before discovering what lies at the coordinates that were in Shiro’s arm,” Allura says. “There aren’t any planets that sent out distress signals between here and the Thaldycon system anyway.”

Everyone’s gathered round where she stands in the center of the bridge.

“I’ll be opening up a wormhole to get there faster,” Allura says.

Finally, they’ll have a way to actually win this war. They going to meet Ulaz. Lance isn’t going to let Ulaz die. Zarkon hasn’t connected to the black lion again so there isn’t a robeast coming after them. All will work out. Maybe Keith will even get to find out he’s galra.

Their trip through the wormhole is easy and simple.

Nothing’s different from the first time they came. Lance doesn’t know if they’re there any earlier or not.

“We should wait, maybe something will show up,” Lance says.

“You’re really attached to coming here, huh?” Keith says.

Lance glares at him. “Who cares if I am, mullet?”

Before Shiro can scold them, alarms interrupt. “There’s an intruder in the castle!”

Ulaz. Lance smiles.

They all suit up.

When Lance finds him first, while they’re spreading out over the 5th deck, Lance doesn’t know what to do.

He almost calls out to Ulaz, but thinks better of it. He shouldn’t be making himself suspicious to the team. When Ulaz starts charging at him he almost turns his bayard into his sword, but he thinks better of it. A sword would be useful, but it would also draw their attention to him even more than he’s already done.

So he fires, misses because of Ulaz’s incredible dodging abilities and pursues him.

In the end, Lance is very glad that Shiro somehow recognizes Ulaz.

Allura unfortunately insists they tie him up.

“I don't think this is necessary,” Shiro says.

“I will not have some quiznaking Galra soldier on the bridge of my ship!” Allura says.

“If my intentions were to kill you, you'd be dead already,” Ulaz states simply. Lance is a little bit glad he knows Ulaz couldn’t break out of those cuffs.

“Are your Galra threats supposed to win my trust?” Allura snipes.

“I’m not trying to win your trust. I'm trying to win a war. And, because of Shiro, we are closer than we've ever been. Our gamble on you paid off better than we could have ever imagined.”

“When you released me, you also mentioned that there were others working with you.”

“Yes. We are called the Blade of Marmora,” Ulaz says.

“Uh, others? Are they here?” Hunk asks.

“Hunk, he’s a chained prisoner,” Lance says.

“I am alone on this base.”

“What is this base you're talking about?” Allura asks. “The coordinates just led us to this wasteland.”

“The base is hidden. Now that I know it is Shiro that has come, you are welcome to our outpost. It lies dead ahead.”

“Behind all the xanthorium clusters?” Pidge asks.

“No. Right in front of it, in a hidden pocket of space-time.”

Nobody but Lance thinks it’s a good idea this time.

“You recognized Ulaz, didn’t you?” Lance asks.

“I did. But… I barely remember anything,” Shiro says.

“And what, you guys all think Ulaz would rather get himself blown up than just leave and be done with it all?” Lance asks.

“If it means the lions would fall into Zarkon’s hands, yes,” Pidge says.

“What evidence do we possibly have that he’s telling the truth?” Hunk asks.

“Because we’re paladins of Voltron, and if there’s some kind of secret rebel group already on the inside of Zarkon’s ships, maybe we’ll have an easier time overthrowing the genocidal dictator?” Lance says. “And I’m one for holding out hope.”

Shiro exhales. “You make a good point, Lance. Allura?”

“Fine. Slow and steady, Coran. Head for the xanthorium cluster,” Allura says.

Lance relaxes. At least when his presence threatens something worse than what’s already happens he ends up fixing it.

“Yes, Princess,” Coran says. “Beginning approach. Impact imminent in five, four three, two. Well, that's something.”

“What is it?” Allura asks.

“Putting it up on the screens.” Coran displays the the view screen from the bridge down in the lounge.

“Amazing. They're folding space,” Pidge says.

“Welcome to the Blade of Marmora Communications Base Thaldycon.” Ulaz stands up. “Now, if you'll free me, I need to send a message to the leadership. They need to know I've made contact with Voltron.”

“Go with him and keep an eye on him,” Allura tells Shiro. “I’m staying here.”

“Oh! Can we go?” Hunk pipes up.

“I want to see how they make the space pocket!” Pidge says.

They take the red lion to the marmora base.

The paladins spend a long time on the base learning about the blade. Ulaz doesn’t tell them much. Lots of it he’s been sworn to secrecy on and thinks his oath is more important. The rest are things he doesn’t know.

“We all have people risking their lives in this fight,” Ulaz says.

Suddenly Lance’s lie about hope from earlier becomes true. He hopes so much that no one is going to have to die this time. Lance knows enough to stop them.

They’re going to be able to stop Zarkon and then they’re going to break apart the empire, and they’re going to make sure Honerva can’t destroy every universe.

Allura comes and joins them. 

“It’s hard to believe that there are Galra fighting against Zarkon,” she says.

Ulaz gives them the coordinates to the mane base for the Blade of Marmora. Everyone heads back to the ship. They fly away from the base to open space. The paladins train for the rest of the day, all of them much more motivated that they had been.

Keith is being extra quiet, but Lance isn’t too concerned. 

Keith still responds to Lance’s taunts so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. He can’t remember if this happened the first time around, he didn’t notice if it did.

^*^

Lance wakes up the next day exhausted.

He opens up his notebook and flips to a new page.

“I’ve only been back in time for ten days and I’m already do goddamn sick of it.”

That about sums it up.

He doesn’t want to be here. He wants to be home with his friends. These people around him are becoming his friends too, which is good. It’s different though. He wishes he could make fun of his Pidge for stealing her brother’s haircut. He wishes he could ask Hunk about his latest online date with Shay. But Pidge’s wounds here are still to fresh on them, and Hunk never got too meet Shay.

Lance groans. He presses his palms into his eyes.

Hunk never got to meet Shay.

Damnit.

Lance misses Romelle pointing out their every stupid decision. She’d be in fucking disbelief at him not making sure Hunk and Shay got together.

Lance gives a long sigh.

There’s always more time. He can do it after they defeat Zarkon with the blade.

After that, he can stop Keith from running off and joining them and almost getting himself killed.

At breakfast, Lance makes sure to talk to Shiro and Allura before they’re swept up into the day.

“We need some kind of regularity,” Lance tells them. “We need to have designated days where we’re not trying to fight a war.”

Shiro nods. “Getting burnout wouldn’t be good.”

“I’d also like another day to recover. We haven’t set our next destination and I would prefer not to warp again so soon,” Allura says.

“Does that mean we get to have weekends while were in space?” Pidge interjects.

Shiro nods. “Breaks are important, routine breaks are even better.”

Hunk spends the day in the kitchen experimenting with the different altean foods. Pidge spends the day looking through the information from the blackbox. Shiro spends the day talking to King Alfor’s ai. Lance never finds out where Keith goes, there’s a possibility he’s on the training deck.

Lance spends the day in the library. It’s large and expansive. When Pidge asks what he’s doing, he tells them he’s trying to learn written Altean, because the castle’s translator can’t translate writing.

He can already read Altean. He spent a long time on this ship in the past… future… other dimension… He’s had time for it.

He’s digging through old books, trying to find information on Zarkon.

Most of the books he finds on Zarkon are journals, unpublished.

He reads about Honerva’s experiments on the rift Coran had talked about when they’d asked about the original paladins. He learns about the circumstances of Lotor’s birth. Altea had been destroyed before Lotor was born. Lotor was placed in a cryo pod, but the records stop before they say Lotor gets out.

Lance’s lip curls at the thought of Lotor possibly being a baby. The blades would probably raise him. It’d probably stop him from being a murderer. If he’s a baby, it’d stop him from breaking Allura’s heart.

Lance doesn’t really know what he’d prefer. It doesn’t really matter. They don’t need Lotor to succeed as far as he can tell. Lotor’s goals were separate from Voltron’s for the most part. He was only there out of necessity and convenience.

After dinner, Shiro has the paladins, plus Allura and Coran, meet him in the lounge.

“I learned a few things while talking to Alfor today,” he says. “Zarkon was the original black paladin.”

“Today I read about the fact that Zarkon is a zombie,” Lance sates. He’s sitting with his left side supporting him and with his right leg and arm on the back of the couch.

“Allura, did you know about this?” Pidge asks.

Allura sighs. “Admittedly, yes, I did. It hadn’t come up.”

Allura stands up, staring at the floor. Lance can tell she’s about to make a speech.

“My mother was the blue paladin and my father was the red paladin. King Alfor created the lions from a comet that was found on Zarkon’s home planet.”

Lance is speechless. His eyes are wide. He schools his expression to match the more somber feelings of his fellow paladins. Allura’s mother wasn’t the blue paladin where he came from.

Lance wonders how long it will take for the shock to wear off. How long will it take for differences to feel normal.

^*^

The next day Coran asks them to work on some of the castle’s necessary repairs. Coran had planned on asking them the day before, but let them have their break day instead. It’s almost lunch time and they’re all in their suits floating next to the ship working on the last repair.

When the spores come flying by, Lance makes sure to throw one a Keith. Unfortunately, the lack of friction in space throws off his aim. He hits Shiro in the back of the head. The resulting space snowball fight is fun, full of laughing and dramatics.

Pidge sends one of the spore clusters in to the castle for study and everyone heads back inside the ship. Decontamination in their suits is fun, air and water blast the spore particles from their suits.

It takes an hour or two for Pidge to decode the spore, and another for them to get to Olkarion.

“ Let's assemble Voltron and get rid of these Galra invaders,” Shiro says after discussing the situation for a few minutes with Ryner.

“It's not that simple, I'm afraid. The Galra have our leader, Lubos,” Ryner explains.

The surrounding Olkari mutter Lubos’ name reverently.

“If you attack, who knows what they'll do to him?” Ryner says.

“Then we’ll just have to rescue him,” Shiro says.

“This feels like a cult,” Lance whispers to the paladins when they’ve walked away from the Olkari. Lance is willing to tolerate absolutely none of Lubos’ bullshit this time.

The paladins make their way through the forest with Ryner. They stop at the armory to get the Olkari’s plant based modes of transport, then head towards the city.

“Their headquarters are impenetrable from the ground, but there is one way in, a small opening in the roof. It goes all the way down to an open courtyard,” Ryner explains.

“That's quite a drop,” Keith says.

“But there you will have total access to the building. The hard part will be getting onto the roof undetected,” Ryner says.

“That won't be a problem,” Shiro says. They’ve got Pidge’s cloaking ability on the green lion.

Now, with the rest of the paladins aware of the giant black cube that could attack them at any moment, Shiro puts a plan in motion. They act quickly. The Green Lion drops them off though the center of the hollow tower. They put the same censor that they used on the Balmera to find where Lubos is.

They sneak back up though the tower, avoiding the sentries that guard it.

The sensor leads them to a room with two Olkari life signs. The walls aren’t sound proofed and there’s sobbing coming from inside. Why would there be crying? If Lance remembers correctly, Lubos is being doted on. 

The room is unlocked, the paladins stay in formation as they quietly step into the room. Lubos is watching a soap opera.

“King Lubos?” Shiro asks.

Lubos turns around in his chair. He’s got a large tray of sweet looking foods next to him. “Yes? Who are you? The jesters I requested?” Lubos asks.

The team sits in silence for a moment, waiting for something to happen.

“We’re here to rescue you,” Keith says.

Lubos gets a mean look on his face and presses a button on his chair. All the lights turn on. A galra commander and a few sentries rush in.

“Looks like someone came to save you, Lubos,” the galra commander says.

“You turned your back on your people to save your own skin?” Shiro asks, turning to lubos. He sounds offended, but he’s not yelling.

“I’m doing this for my people!” Lubos says. “They wanted to fight the Galra, but they are too powerful! The Galra could destroy us!”

“So, you helped enslave your people to build some super weapon?” Hunk asks.

“Don't make me the bad guy! He forced me to do it!” Lubos points at the galra commander.

Lance has already tolerated to much of Lubos’ bullshit.

“You’re as much of a tyrant as the galra are,” Lance says. He rushes towards Lubos. The other Olkari that stood in the room wearing the galra prison uniform throws Lubos towards him. 

Before Lance can make his intentions clear, Keith rips Lubos away from him. He holds his bayard up to Lubos’ neck.

“You don't want me to hurt your genius engineer, right?” Keith threatens.

“Oh, be my guest. He’s no longer needed, the cube is complete,” the commander says with a spike toothed grin.

“What? But-But I thought we had a deal!” Lubos stutters out.

“Guards, put them all out of their misery.”

Before the sentries can fire, the Green Lion’s later cuts through the wall.

“Your ride is here!” Pidge’s voice says through a speaker. 

The paladins and the two Olkari board the lion, avoiding the sentries’ firing.

The cube begins booting up far away.

They return Lubos to the Olkari in the forest and make a game plan.

Lance doesn’t know how Pidge got their ability to take down the cube. He’s stalling for them. He stalls and stalls. When the cube gets split into four and the lions split up to fight it, he keeps stalling. When Pidge gets knocked out of the sky, Lance keeps stalling even though his hope dwindles slightly. What if Pidge can’t do it in this universe?

Pidge, of course, pulls through. Unlike Lance’s ice power and Keith’s fire power, Pidge’s plant power can destroy the cube from the inside. 

The galra retreat, running away as the Olkari take back the city.

The paladins go back to the ship, leaving the Olkari with a distress beacon, should they ever need it.

The paladins train for an hour, lightweight team fighting activities. Shiro capitalizes on their end of fight high to have them all moving closely with each other during training.

To Lance, it’s amazing. It makes him feel like he’s home.

^*^

They receive a distress signal from a near by planet.

“Thank goodness you're here! I am Baujal, the leader of the Taujeerians. The Galra just destroyed our ship's engines and left. They've taken everything. We must get everyone off the planet before it dissolves completely! Please, help us!” The leader says when they land. 

“How long do we have?” Shiro asks. 

A chunk of rock falls into the acid. 

“Not long,” Hunk supplies.

“How did this happen?” Shiro asks.

“We've known for years that our planet would eventually lose its outer layer,” Baujal explains.

“Like a snake shedding its skin?” Keith asks.

“Yeah, yeah, that doesn't sound so bad. Beneath that old skin is a new, healthy layer, right?”

Another chunk of the planet falls into the acid.

“Nope. No, I I think the next layer is acid,” Pidge says.

“The plan was to evacuate the population to our nearest moon, where we have built a colony to wait out the shedding process. So we relocated to higher ground and constructed that ark,” Baujal says.

“What happened?” Shiro asks.

“The Galra attacked, led by a vile commander named Morvok. He robbed us of vital resources and left us with only one operational engine, stranding us here,” Baujal says. 

“You're not stranded anymore. We will save your people,” Shiro says.

“I believe you, for I have heard many legends of the valor of Voltron. Five brave Paladins dedicated to this great quest of peace,” Baujal says.

“That’s us,” Shiro says. He runs back into the black lion.

“Paladins, we can form Voltron and cary the arc to the moon,” Shiro says.

It’s shockingly easy. Lance frowns as they’re carrying the arc out of the planet’s atmosphere. He remembers why it was so much trouble the first time. They were running from Zarkon and Keith and Allura both though that Zarkon was somehow tracking them though them. There’s no worry of being randomly attacked now. 

They leave the Taujeerians with the same device they’ve left with the Arusians, the Balmerans, and with the Olkari. 

They go back to the castle and train.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malls, Angstyness, and going to the blade base.

“I think I’m ready to warp to the Marmora base,” Allura says.

“Awesome,” Lance says.

“I’m glad you’ve recovered,” Coran says.

Lance is relieved that they aren’t running from Zarkon anymore. Everyone takes their seat to warp.

Allura opens the portal and the castle goes through.

Warnings flash around them.

“Oh no!” Coran says. “We’re going to be exiting this wormhole a lot sooner than we expected.”

“What?” Shiro asks.

They pop out the other side.

Lance, of course, remembers when this happened the first time. It was much more life threatening then. Maybe this time no one will feel like they’ll be ripped apart by a space tornado.

“Where are we?” Hunk asks.

“About halfway through the Nazra system,” Coran supplies.

“And… how far is that to the base?” Lance asks.

“Still to far not to wormhole…” Coran says. “We barely jumped half a day’s flight.”

“What happened?” Pidge asks, poking at different things on their monitor.

“The teludav seems to be malfunctioning,” Coran says. “I’ll head down to check it out.”

The paladins wait on the bridge for Coran.

He tells them that the teludav lenses are cracked any they’ll need to purchase new ones.

“Only a few Alteans could use the teludav 10,000 ago. They may not exist anymore,” Allura says.

“I think I may know where we can get some,” Coran says.

“Coran! You're not suggesting going to one of those filthy swap moons! The last time you went, those space pirates took you for everything you had,” Allura scolds.

“Anyway, it’s only a few vargas away. I’m sure I’ll find lenses there,” Coran says again. 

They arrive at the mall without incident. Everyone runs off on their own. Lance heads straight to the earth shop to get Kaltenecker. He hopes the cow hasn’t been purchased yet. If that cow can be one single consistency in the timeline, it’s fucking going to be.

Lance starts at the wishing fountain to collect money.

“What are you fishing for money for?” Pidge asks.

“I want to buy the cow,” Lance tells them.

“I’m getting kill bot phantasm,” Pidge declares.

“All right,” Lance says.

They scoop up all the money from the fountain they can. They rush back to the Earth store to make their purchase. They spend the rest of their trip riding the cow on her floating platform around the mall.

They find Shiro wandering around and he hops on Kaltenecker too. Hunk and Keith hop on while running from mall security.

“I got the scaultrite lenses!” Coran shouts as he becomes the sixth passenger on Kaltenecker.

Lance sighs with relief as the six of them make it back to the pod without being arrested.

“How illegal is stealing from a wishing fountain?” Lance asks.

“I don’t know, can’t be too illegal, can it?” Hunk says.

“Don’t worry about it, Lance, at worst we’re banned from the mall,” Pidge says.

Hunk gets shotgun on the way back to the castle.

The rest of the day, Pidge and Coran repair the teludav.

Everyone else is free to do what they want.

Keith is glaring at practically everything.

“Do you want to go train for a bit?” Lance asks. He points his thumb over his shoulder.

“Sure,” Keith grumbles.

Keith seems to get some of his thoughts out on the training deck. Apparently violently disarming robots with friends is coping some how?

It’s nice for Lance too, they’re working on an easier setting and playing to just each other’s strengths.

After they go through a few levels, Lance pulls Keith away from the training deck to get some dinner. Keith’s knife is in his sheath. The handle is wrapped, hiding the stone that bares the marmora symbol.

Lance serves both of them a bowl of goo. He hands Keith his and grabs Keith’s sleeve.

“Where are we going?” Keith asks.

“I’m taking you to the star deck,” Lance says.

“There’s a star deck?” Keith asks.

They have to walk past the hallway that leads to everyone’s rooms as they’re heading to the star deck. The lights are out, which means everyone should be in bed.

Keith notices too. “Oops.”

Lance drops Keith’s sleeve, realizing he doesn’t need to be holding it anymore.

They get to the top of the ship where the star deck is.

“I don’t know if it’s actually called the star deck,” Lance admits. The rooms don’t exactly have labels. ”That’s just what I’ve been calling it.”

Lance takes a seat in front of one of the large windows that shows the ocean of stars just outside it. Keith sits down next to him, in awe of all the stars in front of him.

They both take a few bites of food.

“It’s almost like being back in the desert, but…”

“The stars are wrong, I know.”

“Yeah,” Keith says. “I guess we’re too far from Earth to have the same stars.”

“We’re not even in the milky way.”

“Right…”

Keith keeps looking out at the stars. His eyes are dodging between them.

“Are you making constellations?” Lance asks.

Keith shrugs. “I guess.”

When they’re done eating, Lance stands up and puts their bowls by the door. When he sits back down he snatches Keith’s knife out of it’s sheath. Keith immediately goes to grab it out of Lance’s hands. Lance’s arms are longer so he holds it out of Keith’s reach for just long enough for Keith to stop trying.

“Where’d you get this?” Lance says, spinning the blade around.

“My dad gave it to me,” Keith says.

Lance runs his fingers across the cloth that covers the stone underneath. “What’s the cloth for?”

Keith shrugs.

“Is it keeping the handle on or something?”

“No,” Keith says.

Lance slowly takes the cloth off the hilt of the blade.

“Hey this looks like the symbol on Ulaz’s sword,” Lance says.

Keith takes the knife out of Lance’s hands and wraps the cloth around it again.

“Is that why you covered it up?” Lance asks.

“Why are you doing this?” Keith asks. He puts the blade back into it’s sheath.

Lance’s face falls. “Because you’re my friend.”

The lying sucks. It’s not going to stop sucking. Lying isn’t usually in Lance’s nature, not about important things.

They sit in silence for a moment. Lance spins around on the floor and leans against the view behind him.

Keith comes over and sits down next to him. He sits close enough so their arms touch.

“Yeah, I covered it up because it’s the same as Ulaz’s.”

“Allura’s been pretty touchy about the blade, hasn’t she,” Lance says.

“Yeah… I just figured…”

“It’s all right dude, I get it,” Lance says.

Lance yawns and realizes how late it probably is.

“I don’t know what the knife means,” Keith says.

“I think you do,” Lance says. He doesn’t mean it in a mean way.

They fall asleep.

Lance wakes up with one arm lying on top of Keith and one arm that Keith is using as a pillow. Lance nudges Keith awake.

“Wake up,” he whispers.

Keith’s face tightens like opening his eyes is the last thing he wants to do.

Lance pulls his arm out from Keith’s head. Keith opens his eyes to glare at him.

“You suck,” Keith says.

“C’mon, it’s either morning or we should sleep in a real bed,” Lance says.

Keith sits up and rubs the sleep from his eyes.

“Fine.”

Right, Lance had forgotten, Keith can sleep anywhere.

The two walk back to the hallway where their rooms are. The lights are on, so it must be morning. Lance decides to dinning room and kitchen to see if anyone’s actually awake yet. Keith doesn’t follow. He just heads back to his room.

No one is awake, Lance heads back to bed and wakes up an hour later. When he gets his breakfast he remembers the dishes he and Keith left in the star deck. He eats his breakfast as he’s walking to the star deck and collects the bowls.

When he returns, everyone else is eating breakfast in the dining room.

“Lance, nice of you to join us,” Shiro jokes.

Lance knows he’s not being mean about it. He still has to remember to smile back though.

“I had to grab dishes from the star deck,” Lance says.

Shiro nods, though Lance doesn’t think he knows exactly what Lance is talking about.

“We’ll be arriving at the base after lunch. We’ll train till then. Hunk’s going to cook us some lunch,” Shiro says.

“Awesome,” Lance says. He takes a seat next to Pidge and joins in on all the chit chat until everyone’s done eating and ready to do some training.

Soon they’re standing on the bridge while Allura opens a wormhole. They’re worm holing a little bit away from the base as per Ulaz’s instructions.

Lance knows why, but the others will soon see.

The two black holes and massive star are a good reason not to come too close to quick.

It’s day fourteen of being in the past and they’re finally at the marmora base. He’s not sure, but Lance thinks they might actually be here a day later.

“Identify yourself,” the computer says as it beeps.

“Open a hailing frequency, Coran,” Shiro says. The console beeps as it opens. “We are the Paladins of Voltron, sent here by Ulaz.” 

“Three may enter. Come unarmed.”

Three, that’s different. Maybe it’s because Ulaz didn’t die.

“Why would they insist we come unarmed?” Allura asks. “Shiro, this doesn't feel right.”

Shiro decides Keith and Lance can both come too the base, they take the Red Lion because it can take the heat from the star.

For the first time ever, Lance is getting motion sick in space. He can’t believe Keith ever complained about his flying. His flying may usually be graceful, but this flight is jerky and uncomfortable. Although, that may have something to do with Keith’s current state of mind.

“There’s nothing here, this place just looks like a plain asteroid,” Keith says when they exit the Red Lion. He’s right, it’s empty and there’s no signs of life. 

Three galra donned in Marmora uniforms rise from a platform a few yards away.

Lance walks forward to stand by Keith’s right side, a habit he formed after many many diplomatic meetings. 

They’re guided to the platform. The elevator downwards is a long one. Lance has never been on the base, but he knows it’s safe here.

When the platform stops moving, they move into the long room ahead of them. It’s lined with members of the blade.

“I am Kolivan, leader of the Blade of Marmora,” Kolivan says when they reach the end of the room.

“My name is Shiro and this is Keith and Lance. We are Paladins of Voltron.”

“I know who you are,” Kolivan says.

“Then you know we were sent by one of your own,” Shiro says.

“Ulaz was a fool to divulge this location to you. He had a penchant for ignoring orders and following his impulses,” Kolivan says.

“He’s the one who brought us here today, and Voltron is ready to assist you. Are we welcome here or not?” Shiro asks.

“You were told to come unarmed,” Kolivan says.

Lance is confused. “The Red Lion isn’t really a weapon if no one’s piloting it.”

“If anything happens, believe me, you'll be happy you have the Red Lion on your side,” Shiro says.

“I imagine we would. However, I wasn't referring to your beast,” Kolivan says.

One of the blades approaches Keith from behind. They grabbing his arm and pin it behind his back. Keith tries to struggle out of the hold. His foot is kicked out from under him and he crashes to the floor, pinned there.

Lance and Shiro rush towards him but their path is blocked by blade members.

The one pinning Keith to the floor pulls out Keith’s knife.

“He has one of our blades!” he says. Lance recognizes the voice as Antok’s. “Who did you steal this from?”

“I didn’t!” Keith yells, twisting his head to see his captor. “I’ve had it all my life.”

“Lies!” Antok says.

“Can you corroborate your friend’s statement?” Kolivan asks, looking at Shiro. “Does this blade truly belong to him?”

“It’s his knife, Kolivan,” Lance says before Shiro can answer.

“We can’t trust them,” Antok says.

“I’m telling the truth!” Keith says. “I saw Ulaz had a knife like this. Tell me what it means.”

“Our organization is built on secrecy and trust. You three should leave. Now,” Kolivan says.

Antok stops pinning Keith, he stands up.

Keith stands up, holding his sore arm.

“Wait a second—” Lance says. 

“I’m not leaving without answers,” Keith says. “Somehow, one of your knives ended up with me on planet Earth. Tell me how.”

“It is time for you to go,” Kolivan says.

_No. No no no no no. We need the blade. We can’t free the universe without them._

“Where did it come from? I have to know.”

“You seek knowledge? There is only one way to attain knowledge here,” Kolivan says.

“How?! I'll do it!” Keith says.

Lance hates how desperate he is. Maybe he could have told Keith sooner. But how would he have explained any of it. He needed their trust, but he could have found out a better way, couldn’t he?

“The trials of Marmora. Should you survive, you may keep the blade and its secrets will be revealed,” Kolivan says.

Survive. Did this happen last time? Is this Lance’s fault?

“Survive? Keith, this is crazy. If they're not going to help us, let's get out of here,” Shiro says.

“I’m not going anywhere. I have to do this,” Keith says.

“Antok, give the boy the blade.”

Antok hands Keith’s knife back to him.

“We will meet again,” Antok says.

“Can't wait,” Keith says, taking it.

“These trials result in one of two things: Knowledge, or death.”

At least that’s a phrase Lance is familiar with, and Keith’s never gotten killed before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for the kudos :) I'm glad you guys like this


	9. Chapter 9

Watching the “trials” is horrible.

More and more blade members rise out of the floor to meet Keith. 

Lance just watches helplessly, staring. It’s not like there’s anything he could do if he wanted to. 

Keith gets cut and punched and kicked. 

Finally, he throws himself down one of the shoots the blade members rose out of. A hologram of Shiro and Lance appear. Keith talks to them. Lance’s head is buzzing, he can’t hear a thing anyone says.

Keith falls on the floor, dead to the world. 

The red lion starts attacking the base. The screens go static and Lance rips his gaze away. 

“It has a link with Keith. It knows when he’s in danger. It’s coming for him,” Shiro says.

Shiro’s being restrained. Lance sprints out of the room, he’s got to find Keith. He hears Shiro’s footsteps behind him.

“Keith!” Lance rushes to Keith’s body. He wakes up and Lance flings one of his arms over his shoulder’s to support him. Shiro takes the other side.

“Stop what you’re doing!” Kolivan commands.

“What are you talking about? What's going on?” Keith asks, he can feel the base rumbling. 

“Call off your beast!” Kolivan says.

“Move out of the way! We're leaving!” Shiro says.

No no no. They can’t leave. They need the blade’s help.

“You're not leaving with that blade. It does not belong to you. You failed to awaken it!”

“What does that mean?” Keith asks.

Antok pulls out his sword and charges towards the three of them. “Give up the blade!”

Shiro lets go of Keith and activates his arm. Lance flinches when Shiro’s arm meets Antok’s strike. 

“Wait!” Keith calls out. “Just take the knife!” 

Keith holds out the knife hilt first. 

No no no. This isn’t supposed to happen. 

Shiro deactivates his arm and Antok lowers his blade. They both turn to Keith. 

“Keith—” Lance whispers. He doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t know how to object.

Keith pulls away from Lance. “It doesn't matter where I come from. I know who I am. We all need to work together to defeat Zarkon. And if that means I give up this knife, fine. Take it.”

The blade glows. It’s so bright Lance has to squint to look at it. 

“You've awoken the blade!” Antok says.

The knife glows and the metal gets darker, it forms a long curved sword. It doesn’t look anything like Keith’s knife in the other world. The hilt is what looks the most different, it travels further up the blade of the sword, looking more threatening. 

“The only way this is possible is if Galra blood runs through your veins,” Kolivan says.

Lance notices that the Red lion has stopped attacking.

They invite Kolivan and Antok to stay on the castle as they plan their assault on Zarkon’s empire.

Kolivan and Antok go back to their base for dinner, sleep, and breakfast the fist night, but stay the next few nights in rooms Coran prepares for them.

Two days later, they’ve got a plan to corner Zarkon and destroy his forces. They don’t know if it will be an assassination attempt until they’re in battle, but it will do. It’s unclear if Zarkon’s suit will be ready in time. The intel they have on it from Thace is unfinished.

Before Kolivan heads back to the base, Lance corners him.

“What do you know about Lotor?” Lance asks hesitantly.

“Zarkon’s son,” Kolivan says. “I can send you our information on him if you believe it necessary.”

“Absolutely,” Lance says.

Kolivan nods. Before they leave the ship, Kolivan hands him a data pad.

It doesn’t have a lot of information on Lotor, but it’s more than they knew the first time. It’s easy to beat nothing.

Twenty five decapheobs ago, Lotor was taken out of a cryopod and raised as a prince. He’s a high ranking general. He’s much younger than his previous self. Possibly that means he’s more charming, possibly that means he’s going to be manipulated. He’s still older than everyone but Coran though.

The data pad also includes information on Zethrid, Narti, Ezor, and Acxa.

Zethrid is ruthless. Narti has a connection to a cat which allows her to see. Ezor is a distracting element. Acxa is cold hearted and quick.

Very important pieces of information. Lance will pull this out if it’s ever needed. Maybe there will be a time when Lance might be able to get the drop on them instead.

^*^

“Wait,” Keith says. He puts a hand on Lance’s shoulder.

They’re about to get suited up to go on their individual missions for the destruction of the empire.

“What’s up?”

“Why…. Why are you acting like nothing’s changed?” Keith asks.

“What do you mean?” Lance asks. “What’s changed?”

“I’m galra…” Keith says.

Oh, right. Lance had forgotten about that revelation.

“Shiro’s acting like nothing’s changed, but Shiro’s… Shiro,” Keith explains. “Everyone else is acting like I’m a whole different person now. Why are you any different?”

“Oh, I already knew.” Fuck. “Nothing changed from my perspective,” Lance says. Dumbass. “Besides, it’s not like you’re actually any different from before we knew. You were always galra.”

“What, how did you know I was galra?” Keith asks. He’s stunned. Lance is glad he’s not mad.

How on earth is Lance supposed to answer that? ‘I knew because I’m a time traveler.’ Fuck no.

“I’m just smart like that,” Lance says. He points to his head. Keith cuffs him on the back of his neck. “Ow!”

Keith laughs. “That’s for not telling me I’m galra.”

“Meanie.”

“You know it,” Keith says.

^*^

“Wait so what’s your plan?” Pidge asks.

“Blue can broadcast a sonar. It’ll give us a map of the station.”

“When did you figure _that_ out?” Pidge asks.

“I was just messing around one day,” Lance says.

Pidge glances at him suspiciously.

They make it onto the base with little difficulty.

Pidge shuts down the drones. Lance scans the base. The Blue Lion lands in the base.

“I’ve compiled the data from the Blue Lion’s sonic scan and created this map. It appears the prison is comprised of three concentric levels. Each level is showing different types of security.”

“Try saying that three times fast,” Lance butts in.

“That’s weird,” Pidge says. “The Blade of Marmora said that this prison was made just for Slav, but I’m showing two cells.”

“Weird. Can you get a visual on the cells?” Shiro says.

“No, not from here. And even if I could, we don’t know what Slav looks like,” Pidge says.

“Then we’re just going to have to check both,” Shiro says.

“I’ll go to the command center to try and access the security system,” Pidge says.

“Let’s get moving.”

They make their way down a hallway and hide, waiting for Pidge to get to the command center.

“The top level is patrolled by sentries. The second level is patrolled by floating drones and immobilizing foam. I can’t get into the third level from here. It’s a closed system, you can’t access the whole base from any one point,” Pidge says over comms.

“Great,” Lance says.

They make their way past sentries and Pidge sends Rover with them to scramble the monitors on the second level.

Lance gives rover a friendly pat as he heads down the hallway towards Slav.

Shiro and Lance send the data to Pidge that they need to get them onto the third level of the base.

After Shiro gets a picture of the warden’s face, Pidge makes a 3D render and Lance heads inside Slav’s room.

“Slav?” Lance asks. The room is dark and something’s moving inside.

Slav’s wiggly body pops up from behind a bed.

“Are you hear to torture me?” Slav asks.

“No, I’m a paladin of Voltron.”

“Oh no, even worse. In 98 and three one hundredths of a percent of realities with a prison break, I die!”

“Well, we got you out last time I did this, so you can come with me.”

Slav’s eyes light up.

“Time traveler?” he asks. He rushes towards Lance as Lance backs away. He closely examines Lance. “No, universe travel. Interesting. Very interesting.”

Slav seems content to follow Lance where he’s going. Lance just starts, walking backwards out of the room.

“What was your timeline like?” Slav asks.

“Extremely similar,” Lance says.

“Interesting, are you trying to change this timeline?”

“Am I changing things if there wasn’t something to change it from?” Lance asks.

“I suppose not!” Slav exclaims. “But you are trying to change things from your original timeline, are you not?”

“Of course,” Lance says. “I want things to be better.”

“Oh! Do you know some kind of secret from your original timeline that will allow the universe to be freed from evil?” Slav asks.

“No, but I know lots of stuff that can help,” Lance says.

Shiro tells them that the other cell had some sort of animal in it.

Lance frowns. Of course Shiro is smart enough to figure that out.

“I’ve got Slav,” Lance tells his teammates.

“So, what lion do you pilot?” Slav asks. “In ten point twenty five percent of universes you would be flying the Red Lion even while wearing blue paladin armor.”

“Hey. Wait a second,” Lance says. They’ve reached the drone floor. “If there are infinite universes, doesn’t that mean there’s an infinite chance of everything happening?”

“I don’t know. Are there infinite universes?” Slav asks. “Countably or uncountably infinite?”

“I don’t know, but I do know that there are some kind of infinite universes! I saw them growing.”

“You saw the universes growing?” Slav asks amazed.

“Sure did, and were almost too the blue lion,” Lance says.

“So you _do_ pilot the Blue Lion.”

They wait for Shiro and Pidge on the foot of the Blue Lion.

“all right, let’s get out of here before they notice Slav is gone,” Shiro says.

Just as Lance takes his seat in the Blue Lion, alarms flare in the base.

They get out of the base before the warden can find them.

“Did you find anything more on your brother and dad in there?” Lance asks.

“I don’t know, I found some security footage from a few days ago of my brother escaping with some rebels.”

“That’s great, Pidge. We’ll find him in no time,” Shiro says.

Slav pokes around the Blue Lion distractingly. Lance does his best to ignore the quick movements.

Keith and Hunk are already back at the castle when they arrive. Allura opens a wormhole for them to travel to Olkarion where they meet Coran.

“Does everyone have everything?” Allura asks.

“We’ve got the scaultrite,” Keith says.

“Wonderful.” Allura smiles.

Everyone seems to have gotten over their general weirdness about Keith since being away. Lance is relieved, they’ve gotten over it faster than the first time around he thinks.

They land on Olkarion and eat dinner with some of the Olkari. Lance lets it all phase past him. The Teludav is almost complete.

“What’s everybody thinking about?” Pidge asks when they’d standing on a suspended beam staring at the sunset.

“Time travel,” Lance mumbles in-between Shiro’s “Zarkon,” and Hunk’s “Calzones.”

Lance didn’t say it loud enough for anyone to hear.

Lance feels a little dizzy. He feels so disconnected from everything.

The paladins are chatting around him about their adventures.

“You realize, once we defeat Zarkon, the universe won’t need Voltron anymore,” Shiro says.

“We’ve only been in space for two weeks,” Lance says. Was it longer the first time? Shorter?

“Oh,” Keith says. “You’re right.”

How well do his friends know him?

They can’t know him as well as they did the first time? It just doesn’t feel like they do.

Lance knows all of them so well. He’s had a year with them to get to know them. They’ve had two weeks. As far as Lance knows, half the stuff he knows about them either had changed or will change.


End file.
